Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 11: The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have formally extended their support to the National Conference to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir to be led by Omar Abdullah, first since the Centre scrapped J&K special status in 2019 and relegated it to Union Territory.
With this, the strength of the INDIA bloc has gone up to 54 in the 90-member state Assembly as the NC’s own kitty has swelled from 42 seats to 47 with one more elected legislator extending the support. The Legislative Party meet of the Congress was held in Srinagar on Friday morning which was attended by all six elected legislators, including J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president Tariq Hameed Karra. The legislators passed a resolution and signed letters of support to the NC.
“The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting unanimously passed a resolution and authorised the party’s central leadership to choose our CLP leader. We have extended our support to the National Conference and we will hand over the letter of support to them. We accept Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister,” Mr Karra said.
Ruling out any differences on portfolios, Mr Karra said the alliance partners will sit and decide on distribution of portfolios after the government formation. “There are no demands as such. For the spirit of the INDIA bloc, we are supporting the NC for the people of J&K. It’s for a noble cause. We will sit with them formally and at that time we will discuss what the model of governance will be like. The spirit of this alliance is far beyond the game of numbers and ministerial posts. It’s a pan-India spirit,” Mr Karra said.
The AAP headed by Arvind Kejriwal, also submitted a formal letter of support to the NC before the Lieutenant Governor’s office. AAP candidate Mehraj Malik defeated BJP’s Gajay Singh Rana from the Doda seat in the Jammu region. “The AAP will extend support to the NC government in J&K,” an AAP spokesman said.
The AAP’s extension of support to the National Conference – and not the INDIA bloc – has also been seen as another Congress ally’s jab over the party’s failure to reach seat-share deals. The two parties – pushed together by Rahul Gandhi – held several rounds of talks for the Haryana election, but no deal was made, with a recalcitrant Bhupinder Hooda being blamed.
After the Haryana and J&K election results were announced, AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who had been tasked with leading his party’s talks with the Congress, posted a pointed message on X.
Mr Chadha posted a small poem in Hindi that, roughly translated, wonders what would have happened had the two parties managed to strike a deal. For its part, the Congress has said it will hold a detailed review of both election results. Party boss Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, and other senior leaders met in Delhi Thursday. Speaking after the meeting, Ajay Maken said multiple topics had been discussed, including infighting and factionalism in Haryana and the allegations against the Election Commission.
The NC is likely to approach the Raj Bhawan on Saturday to stake claim for government formation in J&K.
With numbers on their side, the NC is mulling to send NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah to Rajya Sabha once elections are held for the same. The J&K Assembly can elect four Rajya Sabha members from the Union Territory (UT). Sources said Dr Abdullah’s name was discussed during the recent Legislature Party meeting in Srinagar and his candidature was approved for a Rajya Sabha seat.