4 independents to support Omar Abdullah's National Conference. Who are they?
With their support, the NC now has 46 legislators in the 90-member assembly. This means the party is exactly at the majority mark in the House.
The National Conference (NC), the single-largest party in the recent Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections with 42 seats in the 90-member assembly, received a further boost with four of the seven candidates who won as independents, extending support to the party, on Thursday.
NC vice president Omar Abdullah, the likely chief minister, made the announcement shortly after he was ‘unanimously’ picked by the party's newly-elected MLAs, as the leader of the NC's legislature party.
Also Read: Omar Abdullah elected National Conference legislature party leader
The four independent legislators are Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Dr Rameshwar Singh. They won from the Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote, and Bani assembly seats, respectively, with their winning margins over their respective nearest rival being 643, 6929, 8851, and 2048, according to the Election Commission.
With this, the NC's tally in the assembly has reached 46, the majority figure in the House. This means that technically, the party led by Omar's father Farooq Abdullah, also an ex-chief minister, does not require support from its pre-poll allies, including the Congress, to form government in the former state, its first since losing its special status and becoming a Union territory, both in 2019.
While the NC contested 51 seats, it gave 32 to the Congress; the latter won only six. The CPI(M) won the only seat it got under the seat-sharing agreement.
Also Read: Omar Abdullah asks Congress to ‘introspect’ on reasons for defeat in Haryana
With 29 seats, the BJP emerged as the second-largest party here. From the People's Democratic Party (PDP), led by Mehbooba Mufti, another former chief minister, only six candidates were victorious.
The polling for Jammu and Kashmir's first assembly elections in a decade, was held on September 18, 25, and October 1. The vote counting was held on Tuesday.