In a significant development, after the Election Commission of India declared the assembly election results, four independent MLAs joined the National Conference alliance on Thursday in Jammu and Kashmir. NC chief and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was unanimously elected as the head of the National Conference’s legislative party.
The National Conference has had emerged as the single-largest party with 42 legislators, helping it reach the magic mark of 46 on its own. The NC had fought the election in an alliance with the Congress and the CPM, the two parties securing six and one seat, respectively.
The coalition now has 53 MLAs in the 90-member Assembly. The BJP won 29 seats, PDP three while one each went to the People’s Conference and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The newly elected National Conference (NC) MLAs met at the party headquarters in Srinagar and reposed faith in Omar, who won from both constituencies he contested in the Valley — Budgam and Ganderbal. He was first elected the CM of the erstwhile J&K state in 2009 at the age of 38.
Meanwhile, with the support of 4 independent MLAs, the NC has got a majority on its own and is not bound to rely on Congress. The independent MLAs support to the NC has also reduced the Congress party’s bargaining power in the alliance.
The four MLAs that have extended support to the NC are Pyare Lal Sharma, elected from Inderwal; Satish Sharma from Chhamb; Chaudhary Mahammed Akram from Surankote; and Rameshwar Singh from Bani – all from the Jammu province. 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
However, Omar said the NC was in touch with the Congress and as soon as it received the letter of support, they would meet J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to stake claim to form the government. “Party chief Farooq Abdullah presided over the legislature party meeting. The elected members unanimously chose vice-president Omar Abdullah as their CM candidate,” the NC said in a statement.