NEW DELHI: What was simmering gossip that's been doing the rounds from Delhi to Srinagar recently - that the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, the 41-year-old Omar Abdullah, and his wife of 17-odd years, Payal Nath, are heading for a split- can now be safely assumed to be official status. The couple, prominent faces in the social circles of Delhi, are believed to have filed for a separation.
Payal had continued to live in Delhi with their sons Zahir and Zamir after Omar took over as the J&K CM. Over the past few months, he has been studiously avoiding Payal's Akbar Road residence during the course of his visits to Delhi, preferring instead to stay at Farooq Abdullah's Safdarjung residence, or at J&K House on 5, Prithiviraj Road, parts of which were supposedly refurbished on that account.
Sources say that Omar and Payal's separation is by mutual consent. Omar, among the more suave politicians of the country, is well regarded in Delhi's social circles, and while people DT spoke to confirmed the fact that the split had been coming for a while, most of them declined to comment on the speculation over the reason behind the split. They did, however, affirm that talk of Omar's remarriage is on.
In that context, there are two names doing the rounds - one, a friend of Omar, supposedly his choice (a highprofile mediaperson), and two, a choice preferred by his dad and his party, the sister of politician Nasir Aslam Wani. Wani, believed to be a confidante of the CM, is currently J&K's minister of state for Home.
"Omar definitely knows her well - the name that's floating online as the one he's looking to marry - but I don't think the part about her being responsible for the break-up, or of Omar looking to marry her, is correct. On the other hand, in J&K, talk of a marriage between a girl from the Wani family and Omar has been there for a while," a source familiar with the concerned parties told DT. The undercurrent to this is, of course, the political implications - while a divorce may do no damage to Omar's political stature in J&K, given that the marriage itself hadn't gone down too well with the conservatives, a second marriage that creates ripples as well may not be very palatable to his political support system.
Payal had continued to live in Delhi with their sons Zahir and Zamir after Omar took over as the J&K CM. Over the past few months, he has been studiously avoiding Payal's Akbar Road residence during the course of his visits to Delhi, preferring instead to stay at Farooq Abdullah's Safdarjung residence, or at J&K House on 5, Prithiviraj Road, parts of which were supposedly refurbished on that account.
Sources say that Omar and Payal's separation is by mutual consent. Omar, among the more suave politicians of the country, is well regarded in Delhi's social circles, and while people DT spoke to confirmed the fact that the split had been coming for a while, most of them declined to comment on the speculation over the reason behind the split. They did, however, affirm that talk of Omar's remarriage is on.
In that context, there are two names doing the rounds - one, a friend of Omar, supposedly his choice (a highprofile mediaperson), and two, a choice preferred by his dad and his party, the sister of politician Nasir Aslam Wani. Wani, believed to be a confidante of the CM, is currently J&K's minister of state for Home.
"Omar definitely knows her well - the name that's floating online as the one he's looking to marry - but I don't think the part about her being responsible for the break-up, or of Omar looking to marry her, is correct. On the other hand, in J&K, talk of a marriage between a girl from the Wani family and Omar has been there for a while," a source familiar with the concerned parties told DT. The undercurrent to this is, of course, the political implications - while a divorce may do no damage to Omar's political stature in J&K, given that the marriage itself hadn't gone down too well with the conservatives, a second marriage that creates ripples as well may not be very palatable to his political support system.
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