My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Jammu & Kashmir Elections: Chief Minister Contenders By  Deepak Parvatiyar December 1, 2014 Ever since the elections were restored in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996 after almost a decade of insurgency that stalled the poll process, the state’s first political family, the Abdullahs, dominated the political scene as they had earlier. Of the four Chief Ministers that the state had since 1996, two were Abdullahs – the father-son duo of Farooq and Omar. Both had completed their respective terms in power while the other two CMs – Mufti Mohammad Saeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad – shared the power by rotation in the same House. This was because of a pact between their respective political parties – the Jammu & Kashmir People’s Democratic Party and the Congress – in the wake of a fractured verdict in 2002. Omar Abdullah: Facing Tough Times Omar, the present CM, is again in contention for the position in case his party, the National Conference, returns to power. In 2009, when he

Jammu & Kashmir Elections: Chief Minister Contenders By  Deepak Parvatiyar December 1, 2014 Ever since the elections were restored in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996 after almost a decade of insurgency that stalled the poll process, the state’s first political family, the Abdullahs, dominated the political scene as they had earlier. Of the four Chief Ministers that the state had since 1996, two were Abdullahs – the father-son duo of Farooq and Omar. Both had completed their respective terms in power while the other two CMs – Mufti Mohammad Saeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad – shared the power by rotation in the same House. This was because of a pact between their respective political parties – the Jammu & Kashmir People’s Democratic Party and the Congress – in the wake of a fractured verdict in 2002. Omar Abdullah: Facing Tough Times Omar, the present CM, is again in contention for the position in case his party, the National Conference, returns to power. In 2009, when he