Srinagar- The Congress has been relegated from a junior partner in the incoming Jammu and Kashmir government to a relative non-entity, after four independent MLAs extended support to the National Conference, the ‘big brother’ in the alliance that won this week’s election.
Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Dr Rameshwar Singh – who won the Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote, and Bani seats – have backed the NC.
The party now has the support of 46 lawmakers – the majority mark in the 90-member House; this does not include the five to be nominated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
This means the political party now does not need the Congress’ support to govern, adding to an existential crisis that has dogged the party over the last decade, fuelled by all-too-many leadership squabbles and election losses, the most recent of which was Haryana.
It is a slim margin, yes. The loss of even one MLA drops the NC below the threshold and the Congress’ six seats (assuming the party can now hold on to all six) is back in play.
But, for now, the Congress is not a factor Omar Abdullah absolutely has to consider.
The NC had finished Tuesday’s counting of votes with 42 seats and the Congress six.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which dominated the Jammu region, as expected, scored 29; the saffron outfit’s count has since gone to 32 after support from the other three independents.
The People’s Democratic Party of ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti collapsed, dropping all but three seats from its 2014 tally of 28 and, with it, any hope of playing ‘kingmaker’.
The result bucked exit poll predictions of a hung Assembly and offered some solace on a bad day for the Congress, after the party slumped to a torrid defeat in Haryana.
That loss invited scathing criticism from the party’s INDIA bloc allies; the Shiv Sena of Uddhav Thackeray and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool were particularly severe.
The Sena, the Trinamool, and the AAP slammed the Congress’ “arrogance” and “overconfidence” and, ahead of elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand later this year, as well as Delhi early next, lamented its ability to “turn a winning innings into a defeat”.
One other important announcement followed a meeting of NC MLAs this afternoon.
Omar Abdullah was unanimously elected the legislative party leader and will become the next Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
This was expected; party patriarch Farooq Abdullah, his father, said as much Tuesday; he told reporters “Omar Abdullah banega Chief Minister” as his party strode towards victory.
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