CM Omar Abdullah’s statement to step down on statehood demand stirs speculation in J&K

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Sunday that he would resign as the CM if statehood was not restored in a finite period.

In an interview with NDTV, Omar Abdullah has said that he would resign as the chief minister if statehood was not restored.

The statement assumes significance for more than one reason, as it comes in the aftermath of alleged cross-voting in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections in which four seats were won by the National Conference (NC) and one by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The BJP victory on the 4th seat has come as a surprise to Omar Abdullah and his party, as he had said with confidence that the NC would win all four seats.

Omar Abdullah has now said that no MLA from the NC went against the party whip and all of them voted for the four NC candidates, Mohammad Ramzan Chowdhary, Sajad Kichloo, Shami Oberoi and Imran Nabi Dar.

Imran Nabi Dar lost to BJP’s J&K president Sat Sharma, contesting for the 4th Rajya Sabha seat. Omar Abdullah has been accusing those MLAs belonging to non-NC political parties of having declared support for NC but finally voting for the BJP candidate on the 4th seat.

The BJP candidate got 32 votes against 22 taken by the NC candidate on the 4th seat.

The BJP had 28 votes of its own on the 4th seat, and Omar Abdullah and other leaders now want to know which four MLAs voted for the BJP for this seat.

The NC was depending on the support of six Congress MLAs, one CPI(M) MLA, five Independents, one of the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and one of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the 4th seat.

Sajad Lone, chief of Peoples Conference (PC) and MLA from the Handwara constituency, had chosen to stay away from the Rajya Sabha polls, but after the results were out, Sajad stirred the Hornet’s nest by saying that the NC had ‘gifted’ seven MLAs to the BJP in a ‘fixed match’ to ensure the victory of the BJP candidate.

Omar Abdullah took exception to Sajad Lone’s comment and said that after abstaining from voting, Sajad should not talk like a professor teaching political lessons to others.

In the 2024 Assembly polls, NC won 42, BJP 29, Congress 6, PDP 3, CPI(M) 1, AIP 1, PC 1, AAP 1 and 6 Independents also won. One of the Independents later joined the NC, while the Congress chose to support the NC government from outside without joining it.

In the 90-member Legislative Assembly, to form the government, a simple majority of 46 is needed to form the government. Two seats of Nagrota and Budgam are presently vacant as these two Assembly constituencies go to bypolls on November 11.

On its own, NC has 42 seats (including the one independent who joined the NC later), this time, and it has the support of one CPI(M) MLA and six Congress MLAs.

AAP MLA, Mehraj Malik, presently in detention, initially supported the NC government, but later withdrew his support.

A political debate of sorts is doing the rounds in J&K now, whether the latest statement by Omar Abdullah threatening to resign if statehood is not restored in the near future owes itself to NC’s statehood restoration commitment or the fear that the future could upset the numbers equations in the J&K assembly. One would not have to wait long for the rabbit to come out of the bag, either way.

IANS