The Congress has reaffirmed that there will be no leadership change in Jammu and Kashmir and that chief minister Omar Abdullah will complete his tenure of six years at the head of the National Conference-Congress coalition government.
“There will be no change there and the question of (having) rotational chief minister does not arise. Omar Sahib will continue to be the chief minister to complete the stipulated term of six years,” a senior Congress leader and state’s minister for public health engineering, irrigation and flood control Taj Mohiuddin told reporters at the end of a meeting of ministers and other senior leaders belonging to the party held in Jammu on Monday.
The crucial meeting had been convened to discuss the recent crisis set off by school education minister Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed’s submitting his resignation directly to Congress president Sonia Gandhi instead of the chief minister to follow the convention following the investigation done by state police’s crime branch (CB) corroborated the charge that his foster son had used unfair means to pass senior secondary examination in 2009 in connivance with the concerned officials and another senior Congress leader publicly accusing Mr Taj of being involved in corruption. With that the internal bickering in the state Congress party unit had once again come in the open with various party leaders, including MLAs either supporting or opposing Mr Taj.
Mr Taj said that Monday’s meeting resolved to strengthen the party. “A number of suggestions were made…it was unanimously decided that no stone will be left unturned to strengthen the party and make it more efficient towards addressing the issues of public importance,” he said, adding that the Congress high command too had directed the state party leadership to put behind all mutual differences.