National Conference president Omar Abdullah will be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir coalition government to be formed by Congress and NC as no party gained the clear majority in the seven-phase assembly elections.
Omar Abdullah told reporters this afternoon after meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence on Tuesday.
“NC and Congress would be equal partners in the coalition and I will head it,” Omar said and added, “I am grateful to Sonia ji for accepting our proposal of alliance to form the government.”
To a query on power sharing between the two parties, he said: ‘so far, the decision has been taken regarding the post of chief minister, which I will head. The rest of the modalities will be finalized later.’
"Date for swearing-in ceremony is yet to be decided," said Omar, who happens to be the youngest chief minister of the state.
In 1998, Omar Abdullah was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha and became the youngest minister at the mere age of 29. In 1999, he was re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha and took oath as Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.
Earlier, the Congress core group met at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take stock of the state assembly outcome and chalk out the future course of strategy in the wake of two contenders — NC, the single largest party (28 seats) and PDP, the second biggest powerful party (21 seats) showing inclination to form the government in the state.
Dr. Farooq Abdullah, who have been chief minister for two terms and was expecting by some of the party members to head it for the third time, had cleared after some hitch on Monday that Omar should be the chief minister. He perhaps was convinced that Omar being young and energetic could prove better chief minister when there was lots of work to be done.
“We have been given the mandate to sit in the opposition and we shall now play the role of a constructive opposition,” Mehbooba, who wanted to be a part of the government with Congress, said on being asked the Congress high command had decided to form a coalition government with her political adversary the NC.
In the seven-phase assembly elections, no party got clear majority. The fractured outcome NC (28), PDP (21), Congress (17), and BJP (11) forced the largest political party NC to form the coalition government with like-minded parties.
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