By IANS,
Jammu : National Conference (NC) president Omar Abdullah Thursday said “we are heading for an absolute majority” in Jammu and Kashmir after the sixth phase of elections in the state, though one round of polling is still awaited.
Omar Abdullah, while campaigning in the Jammu region, told a select group of newspersons Thursday: “From whatever reports have come to us so far (at the end of the sixth phase of polling), we are heading for an absolute majority.”
The NC, which won 28 seats in the assembly elections in 2002, had fallen short of 16 seats to secure a clear majority in the house of 87.
According to Omar, the people have voted for his party because “National Conference had given them a politically stable government from 1996 to 2002 in the most difficult situation and also undertaken massive reconstruction work”.
Omar, who is among the contestants in Ganderbal in north Kashmir, had lost to PDP rival Qazi Mohammad Afzal in 2002.
“On the contrary, the PDP-Congress alliance government could not complete the full term. All the time coalition partners were fighting among themselves.
“The result was bad governance, and at the end of the day they ended up in setting afire the state and creating religious and regional divisions,” Omar said, referring to the Amarnath land row that left the people divided on Hindu-Muslim lines.
The NC chief said that he was confident that the next government would be formed by his party and headed by Farooq Abdullah, his father and NC patron.
“There is no doubt about it. In the last phase we would only add to our numbers,” he said but did not specify how many. “It will be a single party government of the NC,” he added.
Elections in Jammu and Kashmir are being held in seven phases. The sixth and penultimate round of voting to pick a new 87-member assembly in the state ended peacefully Wednesday with about 63 percent of the electorate turning out to vote despite below freezing point temperature and threats from separatist groups.
The last phase of voting is scheduled Dec 24. Votes will be counted Dec 28.