National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah was on Thursday unanimously elected leader of the party’s legislature party.
Announcing this in Srinagar, NC chief Dr Farooq Abdullah said; “A meeting of the legislature party was held where everyone unanimously chose Omar Abdullah as its leader.”
He said a meeting of the pre-poll alliance partners, NC, Congress and CPI(M) would be held on Friday to take the process of government formation further.
Omar told mediapersons; “Today in the meeting of the National Conference Legislature Party, I have been elected as the leader of the Legislature Party. I express my gratitude to the MLAs. Talks are going on to get the letter of support from the Congress. Four independent MLAs have also extended their support to the National Conference. Now the number of NC is 42 plus 4 independent MLAs. After receiving the letter from Congress, we will go to the Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government”, Omar added.
Earlier, all the newly elected MLAs of the NC met at party headquarters to elect their leader, who will be the chief minister as well. Abdul Rahim Rather, a senior NC leader who has been a minister also in Dr Farooq Abdullah’s cabinet, was also present in the meeting.
The NC has emerged as the single largest party in the assembly polls with 42 seats and has a comfortable majority in the 90-member House as its alliance partners Congress and CPI(M) have won six seats and one seat respectively. Besides, the four NC rebels who won the election have also supported Omar. This raises the strength of the alliance to 52. Five members will be nominated by the Lieutenant Governor later.
Omar’s election as the legislature party leader paves the way for his return as CM of J&K after a gap of ten years.
Salman Sagar, NC MLA from the Srinagar district said; “We have elected Omar Abdullah as the leader, it was a proud and emotional moment for all of us. We are happy about it. It was a unanimous decision. In the next one or two days, he will stake claim to form government”.