100 days in office: Omar Abdullah’s government yet to start the process of fulfilling the aspirations of the public; Congress leaders want to leave the alliance

100 days in office: Omar Abdullah’s government yet to start the process of fulfilling the aspirations of the public; Congress leaders want to leave the alliance

POONCH TODAY NEWS

POONCH: Assembly elections in the J&K UT were held for the first time in 2024, and in those elections, the National Conference formed a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. Before the elections, the PDP also wanted to be in the alliance, but Omar Abdullah was well aware of the poor ground presence of the PDP; that’s why he totally ignored the PDP and preferred to have an alliance with Congress. Although Congress leaders were soft on the PDP and wanted the party to be a part of the alliance, it did not work on the ground.

After the declaration of results, the National Conference performed extraordinarily, winning 42 seats with a strike rate of above 90%, while the coalition partner Congress got only six seats, five from the valley and one from Jammu. For the grand old party, the Jammu region always remained its stronghold, but for the very first time in the history of J&K politics, Congress performed poorly and got the lowest ever seats. Big Congress leaders failed to show their performances in the Jammu region, but a first-time Congress candidate, Iftikar Choudhary, won from Rajouri. Furious over its weakest performance, the Congress top brass constituted a fact-finding committee to know the reason for the debacle, and the committee, after hectic efforts, submitted its report to the Congress high command. On the one hand, the Congress was ignored by Omar Abdullah in the cabinet because the NC got the support of some independents and formed the government, and on the other hand, the Congress leaders have now come out openly and demanded an exit from the coalition because the leaders feel that it’s better to come out of the alliance rather than feeling continued humiliation. The Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who announced many big things for the people in the manifesto before the elections, has not yet started to fulfill all those as his government has completed its first 100 days in office on the 24th of January, 2025. For maximum days, the coordination between LGs administration and CMs administration was seen poor over the issue of business rules. Unable to act independently on all matters, the CM was seen saying that the two power centres won’t work in J&K in the interest of the public. The Omar Abdullah-led government was seen as weak on maximum important issues; as a result, the ministers and MLAs were seen failing in implementing their agenda on the ground. However, in a major twist of events, the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who spared no moments in attacking the BJP before the assembly elections, was seen a few days back praising the Prime Minister, Narenda Modi, for his developmental vision and for bringing peace to the valley. Omar’s sudden changing stance shows that he was not feeling full freedom in running the government comfortably and also didn’t want to take direct confrontation with the centre. So, he might have decided to form good relations with the union government in the interest of the public of J&K. The other day, NC MLA Salman Sagar also said that there would be no direct confrontation with the centre on the issue of statehood. It’s a fact that J&K depends fully on centre assistance, so it’s not a good sign for any J&K government to have a direct confrontation with the centre. The people of J&K were expecting something big from Omar Abdullah’s government, but during the first hundred days in office, the government has not announced something big for the people of J&K. Despite the tough stance faced by the National Conference from Congress leaders, the NC has a comfortable majority with the support of some independents, so the top NC leadership is not giving any importance to the issue. The only issue on which the Chief Minister is working is to get full freedom in his governance; that’s why he reiterated the demand of statehood on many occasions. Omar Abdullah feels that unless he gets full powers, it’s better to play soft by forming good relations with the centre and providing good governance to the people of J&K.