“I have been elected as leader of the Legislature Party. I express my gratitude to the MLAs. Talks are going on to get the letter of support from the Congress,” said Omar Abdullah after the meeting. The NC leader, who is tipped to be the next chief minister of J&K, also informed that four independent MLAs have extended their support to NC, which now takes the total number of MLAs from NC to 46 in the 90-member assembly. “After receiving the letter from Congress, we will go to the Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government,” Abdullah said.
The Congress had entered into a pre-poll alliance with NC and won just six seats across J&K — five in Kashmir and one in Jammu division. The party’s newly-appointed J&K chief Tariq Karra won from central Shalteng constituency and met the NC leadership at Abdullah’s residence in Srinagar. He was in New Delhi on Thursday to meet the Congress leadership to deliberate on the party’s performance in J&K.
“Our legislative party meeting is happening in Srinagar on Friday and then we will formally meet the alliance partners,” said Karra. As of now, no formal talks on sharing of ministerial berth or government formation has happened between the two alliance partners.
Farooq Abdullah said their priority is to solve all issues faced by the people here and hoped that the central government would treat the new dispensation in J&K well.
“J&K is the crown of the nation and if the crown is shining, the whole country shines. Restoration of Article 370 will take time but our first job will be the restoration of statehood… We will talk to Congress and decide when to take oath,” Farooq Abdullah said. He said J&K shares its borders with atomic powers like Pakistan and China and the central government needs to realise this. “I hope we will get full support in administering the UT,” he said.
