Omar Abdullah Chosen as National Conference Legislature Party Leader with Support from Four Independents

 This means NC is at moment not dependent on ally Congress which, by late evening, had not provided it with a letter of support

(From left) NC president Farooq Abdullah, vice-president Omar Abdullah and others during the legislature party meeting in Srinagar on Thursday: PTI picture

Muzaffar Raina, TT, Srinagar, 11.10.24 : Omar Abdullah was on Thursday unanimously elected leader of the National Conference legislature party as support from four Independent legislators took the party’s votes to the majority mark of 46 in the 90-member Assembly.

This means the National Conference (NC) is at the moment not dependent on ally Congress which, by late evening, had not provided it with a letter of support.

However, the NC will need the Congress’s backing in case the lieutenant governor exercises his right to nominate five MLAs ahead of the formation of the government.

Omar’s election as legislature party leader virtually paves the way for him to become chief minister.

NC president Farooq Abdullah said a meeting of the pre-poll allies (the Congress and the CPM together have seven MLAs) would be held on Friday to take the process of government formation further.

Omar thanked the legislators for “reposing their faith” in him. “(They) gave me an opportunity to visit the Raj Bhavan and stake a claim for government formation before the governor,” he said.

Omar said talks were on with the Congress to enlist its support.

“We are waiting for the Congress letter. Once we get the letter, we will immediately go (to the Raj Bhavan). We have given the Congress till today to work on it,” he said.

Earlier, the newly elected MLAs of the National Conference met at the party headquarters here to elect their leader.

The National Conference has emerged as the largest party with 42 seats. The five to-be-nominated MLAs, who have the right to vote, will raise the number of legislators to 95 and the majority mark to 48.

A National Conference leader said the party had the support of four independent MLAs --- Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram and Rameshwar Singh, all from Jammu, who won the Inderwal, Chamb, Surankote and Bani seats.

National Conference leaders were in a celebratory mood at the party headquarters for the first time in years. The party is returning to power after 2014. But over the last few years, its leaders had been barred, on occasion, from even visiting their offices under a government clampdown.

The Opposition Peoples Democratic Party has accused the National Conference and the CPM of vandalism at some places in south Kashmir.

“If you (National Conference) have got such numbers, is it to indulge in goondagardi (hooliganism), create destruction?” Iltija Mufti, daughter of former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and media adviser to her, told reporters.

“For the last three days, I have continuously been getting complaints that our workers in Bijbehara, in Khirram, in Dachnipora (are being attacked).”

Iltija said that PDP workers’ homes were being pelted with stones and their cattle stolen. She alleged a cowshed had been torched.