National Conference Vice President Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said the priority of the NC-Congress government in Jammu and Kashmir will be to pass a resolution on restoring statehood. The NC-led alliance is all set to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir after it won the Assembly elections, the first for the Union Territory in a decade. on Tuesday. 

Talking to reporters in Srinagar on Wednesday, the National Conference said the alliance’s elected Chief Minister will travel to Delhi with a resolution and present it to the top leadership of the  Bharataiya Janaya Party government in the Centre, to fulfil their promises.

When asked about his father and NC supremo Farooq Abdullah’s statement proclaiming Omar Abdullah will be the next Chief Minister, he said, “I am very grateful for the confidence that he has reposed in me. But that decision is for the legislators to make. It is a decision of the alliance to make. I love my father dearly and I am very grateful for the support that he showed me yesterday but finally, the say has to be of the legislators and I am always one to do things by the rules and by the book. This is the procedure that has to be followed and that is what will be done.”

Elaborating on the upcoming government’s priorities, Abdullah said, “Whichever CM is sworn in in the next few days, there will be two sets of priorities – one is legislative, which will be determined by the members of the Assembly when the session is called but the other is government-related. My suggestion to the incoming government would be that the first business of the cabinet should be to pass a resolution asking for statehood to be restored to J&K and the CM should travel to Delhi with that resolution, call on the senior leadership of the country and ask them to fulfil their promise.”

He further asserted that the National Conference will not dilute its stand on the issue of the restoration of Article 370. “Our political stand won’t change. We never said that we would be silent on the issue of Article 370 or that it is not an issue for us anymore. But we are not ready to fool people. I have always said that expectations of getting it back from people, who scrapped Article 370, is foolishness. That is like deceiving people. But we would keep this issue alive…We hope that one day the government would change, the Prime Minister would change and there would be a government with whom we would be able to talk on this issue and gain something for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Meanwhile, in a move that would make the NC-Congress majority more stable in Jammu and Kashmir, five independent MLAs are likely to join the National Conference in Srinagar today. As per sources, Inderwal MLA Payare Lal Sharma, Shopian MLA Shabir Ahmad Kullay, Thannamandi MLA Muzafar Iqbal Khan, Chhamb legislator Satish Sharma and Surankote legislator Mohammad Akram Khan will join NC today. 

The National Conference (NC) emerged as the single largest party in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday (October 8, 2024) and won 42 seats in the 90-member Assembly of the union territory. With the support of 6 legislators of its alliance partner Congress, it was comfortable to form the government in UT. However, now with five independent legislators set to join the party, it will have a majority of its own and can rescue Congress’s interface in the governance.