Click to play videoNew Delhi: Congress has ruled out a rotation of chief ministers in Jammu and Kashmir even as the party will have a deputy chief minister in the state Cabinet.
Now the challenge before the party is to find the right candidate with chief minister-designate and National Conference President Omar Abdullah insisting on leaving out tainted leaders from the Cabinet.
Omar will be chief minister for six years as there will be no rotation of the post unlike as in the previous Congress-Peoples Democratic Party government.
"There will be no rotational policy," confirmed Omar.
Unlike the last time, Congress President Sonia Gandhi will go for the swearing in of Omar as it wants to flaunt the Congress-NC alliance as the perfect coalition.
However, sources reveal that it's not so perfect. Aware that he has the mandate and not the Congress, Omar has insisted that rotation makes no sense and that no tainted faces should be among Congress' choice of ministers and deputy chief minister.
Omar's insistence makes things difficult for the Congress as most of its influential leaders in the state like Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Peerzada Sayeed, Tara Chand Sharma and Taj Mohiuddin are accused in one scam or the other and the NC President is believed to have requested the Congress to give them a miss.
"If he is concerned about tainted people we are also concerned about it," Saifuddin Soz, President of the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, said.
In an election year, it makes more political sense for the Congress to opt for the NC, so if in the bargain it has to give up some things; it sees no harm in it.
According to Congress calculations, NC with its increased vote-share could help it in the General Elections as an United Progressive Alliance partner.
Also, the PDP's divisive campaign will not allow the UPA to confront the National Democratic Alliance.
Congress is supporting NC and giving up on chief ministership as support for stability and development and also to claim that it is not power hungry.
But many within the party admit that by doing so it is actually making a virtue out of a necessity.
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