Team News Riveting
Srinagar, October 10
The Congress has been relegated from a junior partner in the incoming Jammu and Kashmir government to a relative non-entity as four independent MLAs joined the National Conference (NC), which is an ally of grand-old party.
The ‘big brother’ in the alliance, the NC had finished Tuesday’s counting of votes with 42 seats while Congress bagged six. Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Dr Rameshwar Singh –have backed the NC.
The party now has the support of 46 lawmakers – the majority mark in the 90-member House. It does not include the five to be nominated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
Going by the numbers, the NC now does not need the Congress’ support to govern Jammu and Kashmir. However, it is a slim margin and the loss of even one MLA drops the NC below the threshold. The Congress with six seats will be back in play.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which dominated the Jammu region, scored 29. It’s count has since gone to 32 after support from the other three independents.
Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah was on Thursday unanimously elected the legislative party leader, paving way to take over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for the second time. In 2009, Omar has assumed the office for the first time.
