OMAR AbDullAH
SCOTCHES SPECULATION THAT HE WAS RAHUL’S CHOICE AS CM IN 2009: The buzz in the Valley is that Omar Abdullah became the Chief Minister only because Rahul made that a condition of Congress support to the National Conference government. Until then, it was expected that Farooq Abdullah would be the next Chief Minister. He had even hinted as much on a few TV interviews immediately after the results. But almost overnight, Omar’s name was finalised. The general perception was that Rahul had pushed for Omar’s candidature. When I tried to cross-check something that I thought was a given, Omar denied it outright, claiming he was not Rahul’s, but his father’s choice for CM. “They [Congress] don’t get to choose. I don’t get to decide who the Congress’ face for PM or CM will be and similarly, the Congress doesn’t get to decide who their allies will put in any position. Who the NC’s CM candidate is or was is a decision only the NC will take. At no point in time did the Congress have a veto as to who would or would not be CM candidate of the NC.” Noting the sceptical look on my face, he shrugged and added, “I’ll tell you this much, if the Congress had at any point of time told us to choose A instead of B, there would have been no alliance. I would never have tied up with a party that told us they would rather have me than my father. That is out of the question. And in all fairness to the Congress, that conversation never took place.” Then why hasn’t he denied this earlier? His response was typically Omar. “I was never asked. Why deny something that’s not been asked. If I deny everything that people talk about that’s all I’ll do every day.”