Days after the party secured 42 seats in the recently concluded Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls, the National Conference (NC) on Thursday elected Omar Abdullah as the leader of its legislative party.
After the party meeting, Omar Abdullah stated that four Independent MLAs have extended their support to the NC. Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Dr Rameshwar Singh – who won the Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote, and Bani seats – have backed the NC.
The party now has the support of 46 lawmakers – the majority mark in the 90-member House – even without Congress’s MLAs, who had won six seats in the Assembly elections.
The National Conference is awaiting a letter of support from the Congress to stake claim to form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian Express reported.
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“The legislative party met today and I thank the legislators for reposing their faith in me. They have given me the chance to go to Raj Bhawan and stake claim to form the next government,” Omar said after the meeting.
The NC vice-president added that talks are on with the Congress to get their letter of support: “We will go to the L-G as soon as we have the letter from Congress.”
For the NC, this addresses concerns of representation of Jammu in their government since the majority of seats in Jammu – 29 of 43 – voted for the BJP.
NC-Congress contested the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in an alliance. While the NC contested 51 seats, it gave 32 to the Congress; the latter won only six. The CPI(M) won the only seat it got under the seat-sharing agreement.
With 29 seats, the BJP emerged as the second-largest party. From the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), led by Mehbooba Mufti, another former chief minister, only six candidates were victorious.
The polling for Jammu and Kashmir’s first assembly elections in a decade, was held on September 18, 25, and October 1. The vote counting was held on Tuesday.