• Abdullah’s critics have been calling him a “non-resident CM” because of his frequent travels to New Delhi where his family lives. Sources said he has visited the capital 20 times since he took charge.
• The Congress, the NC’s partner, isn’t helping either. While Abdullah is said to have a good rapport with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, there is tension between his party and the local Congress leadership. Congress leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand has been saying in public that the “only difference between him and the CM is one additional vehicle in Abdullah’s cavalcade.” The competition is such that Chand even ordered the Estates department to furnish his office exactly like the CM’s.
• In fact, Congress members of the Cabinet are split in two camps — Health Minister Sham Lal and Public Health Engineering and Irrigation minister Taj Mohideen are close to Saifuddin Soz while Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and others are with Ghulam Nabi Azad. The public tiff over a VIP suite in Kashmir House in Delhi between Tara Chand and Taj Mohideen brought the tension to the surface. Three important files on the Dal preservation project had been blocked by the Deputy Chief Minister for three months even as Abdullah asked for their clearance.
• The CM has been often seen as “reacting” to the Opposition PDP and, in the process, taking hasty decisions. For example, the issue of troop reduction has been the central plank of the PDP. Abdullah responded by demanding the pre-1989 position on troop deployment, a step ahead of the PDP.
... contd.
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