Omar to head NC-Congress govt in J&K

| December 30th, 2008 | By: Piyush Goyal | Category: Politics

NEW DELHI: National Conference President Omar Abdullah, who is in New Delhi, is currently meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi for talks on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Congress core group held confabulations today on government formation in the restive state. Sources have said that a coalition between the National Conference and the Congress was imminent. A decision to the effect will be taken by today evening.

Sonia Gandhi is slated to meet Omar Abdullah at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s residence.

Last night, the Congress president held inconclusive consultations with senior party leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on the prospects of forging a tie-up with National Conference.

Gandhi held discussions with PCC chief Saifuddin Soz and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and sought their views on aligning with NC, which a majority in her party favours.

AICC general secretary in-charge of J&K Prithviraj Chavan and Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel also attended the hour-long meeting.

Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari while replying to queries on whether Congress was thinking of any other party as well besides NC had remarked yesterday that since the situations in J&K were new, “all aspects were under consideration.”

Omar Abdullah told reporters on Monday, “We will talk about formation of a coalition and if we succeed in the talks, then probably within two or three days, the announcement of coalition will be possible”.

Reports say that a coalition arrangement between the Congress and the NC will prove beneficial to the former in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.

The J&K polls concluded with no party emerging as a clear winner. The National Conference with 28 seats emerged as the single largest party in the elections. The Congress won 17 of the 87 seats while the PDP got 21. The BJP fared quite well in Jammu with 11 seats.

The meeting took place in the backdrop of both the National Conference and PDP initially showing the inclination to form the government in the state and Congress having a rethink on whether it should support NC or PDP.

Congress and NC were part of an alliance in J&K in 1987.

Latest Top Stories:

Who’s who of Bollywood attend Dabangg premiere
The who's who of Bollywood flocked to the premiere of Salman Khan-Sonakshi Sinha starrer Dabangg premiere held in… »
Obama criticizes plan to burn Qurans, calls it a stunt
Washington: President Obama sharply criticised a Florida pastor’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of the… »
India to carry out its first caste census
New Delhi: India will carry out its first caste census in 80 years, in a controversial decision that could define how political… »
Dabangg has super-hit written all over it
'Dabangg' has turned out to be one of those rare films that have super-hit written on them right from the time their promotion… »
Delhi hospital bags FICCI health care excellence award
New Delhi: Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, a Delhi Government hospital, has won the FICCI Health Care Excellence Award… »
Fearing backlash, Mohammad Asif mulls taking asylum in Britain
London: Fearing a violent backlash in Pakistan for his alleged involvement in the spot-fixing scandal, pacer Mohammad Asif is… »
Chinese woman sues cinema over excessive ads
Beijing: A Chinese woman is suing a cinema and the distributors of domestic box-office hit "Aftershock" for wasting her time by… »
Indian filmmaker pleads guilty, to return home
A documentary filmmaker from India, arrested on a charge of bringing a prohibited weapon into Houston, has pleaded no contest… »
Indo-Pak duo enter US Open double’s final
New York: There was no stopping the 'Indo-Pak Express' as Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi inched closer to their maiden … »
Google launches instant search
Google introduced Google Instant search Wednesday with results given to users as they type the letters of words — not even… »