Sources reveal that one main reason for the last-minute “generational shift” in the NC’s Chief Ministerial candidate — replacing Farooq Abdullah by son Omar — was to “smoothen” the coalition talks. With the Congress high command, Omar Abdullah is the preferred choice for more than one reason. Sources said the father Abdullah does not share a “comfortable relationship” with 10 Janpath while the sons and heirs of the two families are close.

Asked whether his friendship with Rahul will play a role in the NC-Congress coalition, Omar Abdullah told The Indian Express: “I will not use my friendship with Rahul or my equation with him to force a situation which otherwise will not arise. I am not hassling him with messages or talking to him to push our coalition with the Congress”. He, however, said that “the fact of the matter is that he (Rahul) is a senior general secretary and the future of Congress and my personal equation with him will necessarily smoothen the channels of communication (between NC and Congress)”.

But there is no bypassing the proper channels, he said. “It is not in my nature to go to the top. We are taking proper channels to discuss the alliance,” he said. “We are meeting Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi tomorrow”.

He said that former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and state Congress chief Saifuddin Soz were delayed because of the fog. “By the time I arrived here (New Delhi), I had several messages from Mrs Gandhi’s office. We were supposed to meet this evening and now we will meet tomorrow,” he said.

Regarding the possibility of a NC-Congress coalition, a source close to the Abdullah family said that “we are 99.99 per cent sure about it”. But the party still has one hitch. With 21 seats, the PDP has not given up hope yet. And former Chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti — the father-daughter duo of the PDP — enjoy a cordial relationship with 10 Janpath as well as with Soz. Azad, however, favours an alliance with the NC.

Farooq and Omar flew to New Delhi to hold meetings with the Congress high command soon after the feud over the candidature of NC’s chief ministership was amicably resolved after a long and tense night of discussions within the Abdullah family. The confusion surfaced after Farooq Abdullah made contradictory statements — first saying Omar would be the party’s candidate for CM and he would prefer to be in Parliament only to later call himself as the NC’s chief ministerial candidate.

Omar, trying to keep this controversy out of public glare, lost the script once when he told his father on a TV channel that he (the father) would need to be lot more serious and deliver if the party had to avoid PDP’s inroads into its political turf.

This morning, however, was different. In a dramatic turn of events, Farooq took off a garland from around his neck to welcome his son Omar and announce the generational shift. After a warm hug, the father said: “Omar will be our chief ministerial candidate and I will take care of the party. We will need a lot of work to build the party”.

Sources said the party’s old guard preferred the father. In fact, they point out that Farooq was brought to lead the NC’s poll campaign especially as the party was nervous given the mood after the Amarnath yatra crisis. Farooq did manage to energize the party base but he did not go down well with the overwhelming number of new voters.

Sources said that the views of Farooq Abdullah’s wife Molly Abdullah, too, weighed in the son’s favour while the family’s powerful patriarch and life-long General Secretary Sheikh Nazir had been always supporting the return of Farooq. The father finally gave in and decided to take over the party instead to keep himself and the NC old guard in the loop.

According to Congress sources, the PDP sent “feelers” about its readiness to offer the post of Chief Ministership to the Congress if it were to revive the old coalition arrangement. A section of the party has been in favour of an alliance with the PDP on the plea that it would help marginalize the separatist elements in the Valley. The Congress was, however, skeptical about the durability of such government whose survival would depend on so many Independents; the Congress and PDP together have 38 members in the 87-member Assembly while the Congress banked on the support of two other Independents whom it had supported.

Omar questioned the rationale behind an unstable coalition at a time when the state needed stability given the fact that temperatures were running high between India and Pakistan after the Mumbai terror strikes. “We cannot afford to have any experiments when expectations of the people in J&K are so high. We have to have a coalition government which can be stable, which consists of parties committed to a nationalistic outlook, not a regional outlook,” he told the The Indian Express in Delhi. He said the NC and the Congress were “uniquely placed” to form the next government as they would not have to depend on any Independents. “The moment Independents come, it becomes messy. It will be dangerous for Jammu & Kashmir. We need a stable government there.”

(with D K Singh, Delhi)