Omar Abdullah meets LG, stakes claim to form government in J&K | India News – Times of India

SRINAGAR/JAMMU: With four Independents and the lonely MONKEY MLA has formally pledged their support National Conference (NC), as well as alliance partner Congress, who handed over a letter expressing unconditional support on Friday, CM candidate Omar Abdullah met Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha late in the evening and staked claim to form J&K’s first elected government since it became a Union Territory became. .
Omar, who was unanimously elected leader of the NC legislature party on Thursday, drove to Raj Bhavan and handed over letters of support to Sinha. After coming out, he told reporters: “I have asked him to fix a date for the swearing-in ceremony so that the government can start functioning. It will be a long process, because a central rule applies here. The LG will first send the documents to Rashtrapati Bhawan, which will then go to the Home Ministry. We’re told it will take two to three days. So if it happens before Tuesday, we will have the swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.”
NC President Farooq Abdullah had said earlier in the day that the INDIA bloc would meet the LG on Saturday and seek a date for the swearing-in of the new government. Expressing hope that the alliance would be given enough time to “inform our friends to attend the ceremony”, he said the focus of the elected government would be on rebuilding J&K.
Support from Independents and AAP has taken the alliance tally to 54, well above the magic figure of 48 in the 95-member assembly – 90 elected and 5 nominated.
There were concerns over the representation of Jammu in the new government, but Omar assured after a meeting with the LG that the region “will not be ignored in this government”.
The support of four independents – Pyare Lal Sharma from Inderwal, Satish Sharma from Chhamb, Chaudhary Mohammed Akram from Surankote and Rameshwar Singh from Bani – is expected to ensure that Jammu – where the BJP won big, securing 29 of the 43 seats – will not be unrepresented in the elections. the NC-led coalition government.
NC is the leading partner in the new alliance with 42 MLAs, while Congress’s position has been significantly weakened with the party winning only 6 of the 39 seats it contested. CPM, which was also part of the pre-poll alliance with NC and Congress, and AAP have one MLA each. While CPM veteran Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami returned to the assembly from Kulgam, his stronghold for almost three decades, AAP made a surprise debut as Mehraj Malik bagged Jammu’s Doda seat.
AAP posted on X on Friday that the party MLA had submitted a letter supporting the NC-led government. “Hope the NC-INC government will support the anti-corruption policies of AAP and its MLA Mehraj Malik,” it added.
Two more independent MLAs are likely to announce their support to the NC-led alliance, sources said.
The Congress, which held a legislative party meeting on Friday, said it had no conditions or requirements for extending support to NC for government formation. Party J&K chief Tariq Karra told reporters that the alliance was forged primarily with the aim of fighting the BJP’s misrule. He said the party “can propose the measures in areas of concern,” but after the new cabinet is formed.
The Congress has also left the decision to appoint the CLP leader to the party’s central leadership.