New Delhi, August 26
The Congress, which is making a serious bid for power in Jammu and Kashmir, will project state PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad as its chief ministerial candidate.
Though the Congress desists from naming a chief ministerial candidate in states going to the poll, the PCC chief normally emerges as numero uno and is made the Chief Minister in case the party is voted to power.
Except in Uttranchal, PCC chiefs have become chief ministers in states where the Congress has returned to power in the recent past.
In Jammu and Kashmir, where the ground situation is different from other states, the Congress is likey to stick to its policy of not officially naming a chief ministerial candidate. However, there is little doubt that Mr Azad is being projected as the leader of the party in the state. AICC leaders, at a recent rally in Anantnag, had even named Mr Azad as Chief Minister if the Congress was voted to power.
But Mr Azad, who had been for long a party general secretary, is apparently not keen on continuing in the state after the poll and is unlikely to contest the assembly elections.
Sources said that Mr Azad had indicated his willingness to return to the Centre after the poll. The room at the AICC, given to Mr Azad when he was general secretary, has not been given to any other leader.
However, the high-command, which has been looking for a chairsmatic leader to take on state Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, wants to give no signal yet about Mr Azad’s possible return to the AICC.
Mr Azad, in the five months as PCC chief, has been able to contain the severe inlighting in the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress and has been severe in his attack on the National Conference government and the BJP.
