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National Conference Leader Omar Abdullah | Image/File
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was unanimously elected leader of the National Conference legislature party on Thursday.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah was unanimously elected leader of the National Conference legislature party on Thursday.
Omar Abdullah earlier said that newly-elected legislators of the NC will meet to elect their legislator party leader on Thursday and then there will be a meeting of the alliance partners to elect their leader in the House.
“Then, we will go to the Raj Bhavan to stake the claim for government formation and ask the lieutenant governor to fix a time for swearing-in,” he said.
The development comes after Jammu and Kashmir handed a big win to the National Conference and Congress alliance in the assembly elections. Of the total 90 seats in the UT, the NC contested 51 and gave 32 to its ally, the Congress, while one each was given to CPI(M) and the Panthers Party. On five seats, the two senior partners had a ‘friendly’ contest.
The NC emerged as the single-largest party with victory on 42 seats, including from two seats of Omar Abdullah. The BJP settled at the second spot with 29 seats, according to the poll results announced on October 8.
With the Congress winning six seats and the CPI(M) securing the only one given to it, the alliance won 49 seats, comfortably crossing the majority mark of 46 in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
Omar Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, will be elevated to the top office again after serving from 2009 to 2015.
Counting of votes began on October 9 morning for 90 Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, to give the union territory its first elected government since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated. For its first assembly polls in a decade, Jammu and Kashmir polled on September 18, 25, and October 1.
