2 Jan :National Conference chief Omar Abdullah will be sworn in as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on 5th January at the head of a six-member coalition ministry but there will be no rotation of chief ministership.Besides 38-year-old Omar, three members each of NC and Congress will take oath on 5th January.
Among the front runners in the race for Deputy Chief Ministership are Congress leaders B R Kundal, Shyamlal Sharma and Raman Bhalla, sources in Srinagar said.The legislature groups of NC and Congress will meet in Srinagar on Friday separately before calling on Governor N N Vohra to stake claim to form government.
Top leaders of NC and Congress held a 90-minute meeting in Delhi on Friday and decided to have a joint mechanism to review the performance of the government.
"All functional details will be discussed later. But there will be a joint mechanism to review the performance of the government," AICC general secretary Prithviraj Chavan told reporters after the meeting when asked whether the new government would have a deputy chief minister of Congress and chief ministership would be rotated between the two parties as was the case in the previous Congress-PDP coalition.
The meeting in Delhi was attended by Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, Saifuddin Soz, former J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad, Prithviraj Chavan and Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmad Patel.
From NC’s side, Omar Abdullah was assisted by his party colleagues like Abdul Rahim Rather, Mohammad Shafi Uri, Mian Altaf and Ajay Salhotra.Meanwhile, Abdullah has written to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi expressing his party’s desire to join the UPA. The NC has two members in the Lok Sabha.