New Delhi: The Congress party has suffered a huge setback in the newly formed Jammu and Kashmir government and lost its status as a junior partner and effectively becoming a marginal player. The change follows the support of four independent MLAs for the National Conference (NC), which emerged as the dominant force in the recent elections. The MLAs—Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram and Dr Rameshwar Singh—won their respective seats in Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote and Bani, lending their backing to the NC.
With this support, the National Conference now holds the backing of 46 lawmakers, surpassing the majority threshold in the 90-member Assembly, excluding five members who will be appointed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
Consequently, the NC no longer requires the Congress for governance, intensifying an ongoing existential crisis for the latter. The crisis has been worsendc by a series of leadership conflicts and electoral defeats over the past decade, including a recent disappointing performance in Haryana.
NC secures slim majority
While the NC’s majority is narrow—losing even one MLA would place them below the majority mark—the current political dynamics suggest the Congress, with its six seats, is not a critical factor in the NC’s governance strategy. In the vote counting concluded on Tuesday, the NC secured 42 seats, while the Congress managed only six. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was expected to perform well in the Jammu region, initially won 29 seats but later increased its tally to 32 after gaining support from three more independents.
Omar Abdullah set to become J&K CM
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), led by former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, faced a dramatic decline, dropping to just three seats from 28 in the 2014 elections, eliminating any possibility of them acting as a kingmaker. After a meeting of NC MLAs, Omar Abdullah has been unanimously elected as the legislative party leader, set to assume the role of Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, a move anticipated by party patriarch Farooq Abdullah.
