Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil in New Delhi, and tried to convince them to appoint retired bureaucrat R K Takkar as J&K governor.

Takkar is a former chief secretary of J&K and a former telecom secretary.

Congress sources said that while the Mufti was keen to see Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha replaced as quickly as possible, Gandhi was yet to approve Takkar's appointment. Sayeed would not comment on the United Progressive Alliance's response to his proposal before he returned to Srinagar.

Sayeed has barely concealed his dislike for Gen Sinha, appointed by former deputy prime minister Lal Kishenchand Advani because the Bharatiya Janata Party leader perceived the chief minister as being overly sympathetic of militants.

Sinha took over as governor on June 4, 2003. His tenure is marked with a rare toughness that earned him accolades from the National Democratic Alliance leadership, and flak from the earlier Congress-led opposition.

Sources said the feud between the chief minister and the governor began after the army advocated restructuring the unified headquarters in the state. The plan apparently was to take away one of the two commands from the chief minister. The NDA government shot down the proposal and decided that Sayeed would head both commands.

But the damage was done. Sayeed did not forget Gen Sinha's attempts to encroach on his administrative turf and the differences only grew over time.