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Srinagar, October 26 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Sunday that he will resign from the post of CM if statehood is not restored within the stipulated period.
In an interview with NDTV, Omar Abdullah has said that if statehood is not restored, he will resign from the post of Chief Minister.
This statement is important for more than one reason, as it comes after 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).
BJP’s victory on the fourth seat is a surprise for Omar Abdullah and his party, as they had confidently said that NC would win all the four seats.
Omar Abdullah has now said that no NC MLA went against the party whip and all of them voted for the four NC candidates Mohammed Ramzan Choudhary, Sajjad Kitchlu, Shami Oberoi and Imran Nabi Dar.
Imran Nabi Dar, who was contesting for the fourth Rajya Sabha seat, lost to BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir president Sat Sharma. Omar Abdullah has been blaming MLAs belonging to non-NC political parties for declaring their support to the NC but ultimately voting for the BJP candidate on the fourth seat.
On the fourth seat, the BJP candidate got 32 votes as against 22 votes for the NC candidate.
BJP had 28 votes of its own on the fourth seat and Omar Abdullah and other leaders now want to know which four MLAs voted for BJP on this seat.
For the fourth seat, the NC was banking on the support of six Congress MLAs, one CPI(M) MLA, five independent MLAs, one from the Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) and one from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
People’s Conference (PC) chief and Handwara constituency MLA Sajjad Lone had decided to stay away from the Rajya Sabha elections, but after the results came, Sajjad created a stir 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 objected to Sajjad Lone’s remarks and said that after abstaining from voting, Sajjad should not talk like a professor teaching political lessons to others.
In the 2024 assembly elections, NC won 42, BJP 29, Congress 6, PDP 3, CPI(M) 1, AIP 1, PC 1, AAP 1 and 6 independents also won. An independent later joined the NC, while the Congress decided to support the NC government from outside without joining it.
A simple majority of 46 is required to form the government in the 90-member assembly. Two seats of Nagrota and Budgam are currently vacant because by-elections are to be held on these two assembly seats on November 11.
On its own, this time the NC has 42 seats (including one independent who later joined the NC), and has the support of one CPI(M) MLA and six Congress MLAs.
AAP MLA Mehraj Malik, who is currently in custody, initially supported the NC government but later withdrew his support.
There is a kind of political debate going on in Jammu and Kashmir now, whether Omar Abdullah’s latest statement threatening to resign if statehood is not restored in the near future is because of the NC’s commitment to restoration of statehood or because of the fear that the numerical equations in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly may get disturbed in the future. Either way the rabbit won’t have to wait long to come out of the bag.
–IANS
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