Omar Abdullah meets L-G; stakes claim to form government

Srinagar: National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah called on Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha at Raj Bhavan here on Saturday evening to stake claim to form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir. He submitted the names of 53 newly elected supporting members of the Assembly to the government.

Apart from NC’s 41 newly elected members (he himself has been elected on two seats), Mr. Abdullah has got letters of support from the 6-member group of the Congress, the lone CPIM winner and five others including four independents and one Aam Aadmi Party legislator-taking the number to 53 in the house of 90.

After meeting Mr. Sinha, Mr. Abdullah told reporters, “I met the L-G and handed over the letters of support that I have received from the Congress, CPIM, AAP and independents. I requested him to fix a date for the swearing-in ceremony so that the government chosen by the people can start functioning”.

Replying to a question, he said, “It is not a transfer of one government to another. Ours is a Union Territory. It will take him (L-G) time to prepare the papers to send them first to Rashtrapati Bhawan and they will then go to the (Union) Home Ministry which will go through the procedure. After doing the paperwork, the Home Ministry will return the papers (to L-G’s office).”

He added, “We have been told that it will take, at least, two to three days. So, I don’t hope it (swearing-in) happening before Tuesday-Wednesday. If the process is completed in a couple of days, we may go for the swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday”.

He dispelled the notion that the Jammu heartland which has elected BJP candidates on 29 out of 43 seats could be ignored by the new government and said, “All I want to say is that Jammu will not be ignored in this government.”

54-year-old Mr. Abdullah, who served as the chief minister of erstwhile state of J&K also between 2008 and 2014, was elected to become the next chief minister of what is now Union Territory of J&K by the newly elected MLAs of the NC here on Thursday.

NC president Farooq Abdullah had while speaking to reporters here earlier during the day on Friday said that the party vice president will meet the Lt. Governor on Saturday to stake the claim to form the government. But after being informed that October 12 is an official holiday on account of Vijayadashami or Dussehra when Lt. Governor and his staff will be pre-engaged with the related rituals and celebrations, the JuniorAbdullah relocated to Raj Bhavan in the foothills of Zabarwan less than a furlong from his own residence, in the evening to meet Mr. Sinha and submit the list of the supporting MLAs to stake the claim to form the government.

The NC president had said, “The elections are over, and a new government will be in place shortly which will focus on rebuilding J&K. There will be development, employment to the unemployed and peace of mind to the people”

Omar Abdullah who himself was elected on two seats-Ganderbal and Budgam-had earlier got separate letters of support from four of the seven independents and the lone Aaam Aadmi Party winner Mehraj Malik also. In the three-phased elections, the BJP bagged 29 seats, the PDP three whereas J&K People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone was returned from home constituency Handwara.

Meanwhile, the sources in the alliance said that the Congress may get one ministerial berth in the new government and AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmed Mir who won from home constituency Dooru in Anantnag district with a high margin in the recently held Assembly elections may be hand-picked for it. The Congress is likely to also get the Speaker’s post, a prized position which allows the party in the hot seat to control the House. The deputy speaker will be picked up from the NC winners.

Among the other names doing the round for the ministerial berths are senior NC leaders Abdur Rahim Rather, Ali Muhammad Sagar, Sakeena Masood Itoo, Mubarik Gul, Mir Saifullah and Javed Ahmed Rana besides first-time winners Surinder Kumar Choudhary who defeated the J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina by a margin of 7,819 votes in the Nowshera segment of the Jammu region and Zafar Ali Khatana, a Gujjar leader returned from the Kokernag (ST) constituency of south Kashmir.

Earlier during the day on Friday, the newly elected Congress legislators and senior party leaders closeted here to discuss the government formation and related issues. JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra presided over the meeting and apprised the participants of the gist of his discussions with the party high command in Delhi.

Later while speaking to reporters, he said that as of now the Congress has no demands and that it would be only after the government formation that it would put forth what it wants. “We have not put forward any demands. We will extend our support letter to the NC by this evening. Everything will be discussed once we meet with the NC leadership,” he said when asked about the reports that the Congress has demanded the Deputy Chief Minister's post in the new government.

He said that the JKPCC has left the decision of nominating the leader of its Legislature Party to the party’s central leadership in New Delhi. “Today, we had a CLP meeting in which we unanimously decided to give the right to the central leadership to take the call on the CLP leader. We have passed a resolution on the issue and that has been forwarded to the central leadership for taking the call,” Mr. Karra said. When asked about the reason behind it, he said, “There is a precedent in the INC (Indian National Congress) to do that. This is nothing abnormal for the INC”.

A statement issued by Raj Bhavan said that Omar Abdullah called on Lt. Governor Mr. Sinha and handed over a letter from the JKNC president Farooq Abdullah stating that he (Mr. Omar) has been elected as Leader of the Legislature Party of the JKNC. “Letters of support from INC, CPI(M), AAP and independent members were also handed over to the Lt. Governor,” it added.