New Delhi, Oct 10: Congress has been relegated from a junior partner in the incoming Jammu and Kashmir government to a relative non-entity after four independent MLAs extended support to the National Conference, the ‘big brother’ in the alliance that won this week’s election.
Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Dr Rameshwar Singh – who won the Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote, and Bani seats – have backed the NC.
The party now has the support of 46 lawmakers – the majority mark in the 90-member House; this does not include the five to be nominated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
This means the Kashmiri outfit now does not need the Congress’ support to govern, adding to an existential crisis that has dogged the party over the last decade, fuelled by all-too-many leadership squabbles and election losses, the most recent of which was Haryana.
It is a slim margin, yes. The loss of even one MLA drops the NC below the threshold and the Congress’ six seats (assuming the party can now hold on to all six) are back in play.
But, for now, Congress is not a factor Omar Abdullah has to consider.
The NC had finished Tuesday’s counting of votes with 42 seats and the Congress six.
Bharatiya Janata Party, which dominated the Jammu region, as expected, scored 29; the saffron outfit’s count has since gone to 32 after support from the other three independents.
The People’s Democratic Party of ex-Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti collapsed, dropping all but three seats from its 2014 tally of 28 and, with it, any hope of playing ‘kingmaker’.
