The latest incident is an agenda, which the Chidambaram has sent to all the chief ministers for a chief ministers' conference on internal security on January 6. They have been directed to come out with their reports on security situation in their respective states.

Though the chief ministers of opposition-ruled states have not yet reacted to the directive, the chief ministers belonging to Congress have lodged a complaint with the party high command saying the home minister is trying to interfere in their sovereign domain. In their communication to the party high command the chief ministers have argued that Chidamabaram has no right to issue any directive to them.

They say only the Prime Minister has the official right to send directives to the states asking them to aply certain administrative measures to stem the internal security problems. According to a top Congress functionary the chief ministers of the Congress-ruled states, who are in touch with each other, are contemplating to register complaint against Chidambaram with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The style of functioning of Chidambaram has also caused resentment among the senior officials of his ministry for they have been kept waiting for long hours to meet the minister. Even the National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had to wait for hours to meet the minister to discuss the outcome of the investigation of Mumbai terror strike few days back.

According to a home ministry official, only a coterie officials who hail from Tamil Nadu are the favourites of the minister. The official said that the senior officers who are experts in the security related issues were not informed about the proposed conference of chief ministers. #