On Thursday, Omar Abdullah was unanimously elected as the leader of the National Conference legislature party. The development came days after the party secured 42 seats in the recent Assembly polls.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the NC legislature party held on Thursday.
After the meeting, Abdullah announced that four of the seven Independent MLAs have extended support to the NC, taking the party's strength to 46. NC’s ally Congress had bagged six seats in the polls.
"A meeting of the NC legislature party took place, the legislature party has decided its leader and I am thankful from the bottom of my heart to the NC legislators that they have reposed their faith in me and given me a chance to stake claim for government formation," Abdullah said after the meeting.
"Talks are on with the Congress. They have been given a day to decide. Once they give us a letter of support, I will stake claim for government formation," he added.
The four MLAs that who have extended their support to the party are Pyare Lal Sharma, Satish Sharma, Choudhary Mohammed Akram, and Rameshwar Singh - who won the Inderwal, Chhamb, Surankote, and Bani seats respectively.
A total of seven Independent candidates secured win in the Assembly polls.
The NC emerged as the single-largest party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls with 42 seats. The party has a comfortable majority in the 95-member Assembly as its alliance partners Congress and CPI(M) have won six seats and one seat respectively. And the Kashmiri outfit now has the support of four independents as well.
A meeting of the pre-poll alliance members is scheduled for Friday to advance the process of forming the new government, NC president Farooq Abdullah announced.
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