Omar Abdullah.
Credit: PTI photo
Srinagar: National Conference Vice President and Chief Minister designate Omar Abdullah met with Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan on Friday to officially stake his claim to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Emerging from the meeting, Abdullah announced that he had submitted letters of support from the Congress, CPM, AAP, and several independents, urging the LG to set a date for the swearing-in ceremony to enable the new government to begin its work.
However, he said that the oath-taking process would require additional time due to the complexities involved in transitioning from one government to another.
“Jammu and Kashmir is now a Union territory, which means Central rule is in place. The lieutenant governor has to prepare the documents and send them to Rashtrapati Bhavan first. From there, they will go to the home ministry. After the home ministry completes its process, the documents will be returned. We have been informed that this will take about two to three days,” he explained.
This development follows the recent electoral victory of the NC-Congress alliance, which secured 48 out of 90 seats in the J&K Assembly. The Congress won six seats, and four independents have pledged their support to the coalition. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 29 seats, all from the Jammu region, with none of its Muslim candidates, including two former ministers, succeeding.
Abdullah emphasized that the interests of the Jammu plains, where the BJP garnered most seats, would not be overlooked in the new government.
On Thursday, he was unanimously elected as the leader of NC’s Legislative Party, allowing him to stake a claim to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier on Friday, the Congress legislative party met in Srinagar and handed over its letter of support to Omar.
It marks the first elected government after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories (UTs) in August 2019.