We expect PM to do honourable thing by restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir: Omar Abdullah

SRI NAGAR: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Monday said he expects Prime Minister Narendra Modi to do the "honourable thing" by restoring the statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

"A lot of things can be done as a Union Territory, clearly some things can't but we expect that J&K will not remain a UT forever. We expect the honourable PM will do the honourable thing and return statehood to JK at the earliest and then the rest of our manifesto will be implemented," the NC vice president, who is tipped to be the next chief minister of J&K, told PTI Videos.

Abdullah, who led the NC-Congress alliance to a victory in the J&K assembly polls, hoped that the prime minister will fulfil his promise of restoring statehood to the people of the UT.

"The prime minister, the home minister, they are all honourable men. In their speeches and interventions in Parliament, through their representative in the Supreme Court, they have promised restoration of statehood. So I believe it should happen at the earliest. And then obviously our priorities will go forward from there," he added.

In response to a question, Abdullah said the J&K government cannot afford to have an antagonistic relation with the Centre.

"Once the new government is in place, whoever the chief minister of J-K is, I would expect them to travel to Delhi to meet the PM, the home minister and other leaders to impress upon them that the mandate of the people of J-K was for restoration of statehood, was for development and peace and whoever the CM is, I hope they are able to establish a decent working relationship with the GoI.

"There are far too many problems that J-K has and it cannot afford an antagonistic relationship with the Central government. We will have to find a way of working together, and I hope that the Union government will respect the mandate of the people and will work together with the government of J-K to resolve the problems of the people," he added.

Abdullah said the NC legislature party will meet to elect its leader which will be followed by an alliance meeting to decide on the leader of the coalition.

"At the moment, it is for the National Conference legislature party to sit and choose its leader; that has not yet been done. I think that my colleagues deserve at least one day to celebrate their victories in their areas, so tomorrow we will do that," he said.

The NC vice president said in a day or two, he expects party president Farooq Abdullah to call the legislature party meeting.

"The legislature party will elect its leader, then the alliance will elect the leader of the alliance and then once the letters of support are available, then we will stake our claim to form a government to the lieutenant governor. Beyond that, it is not for me to put priorities because none of that has been done yet," he added.

Asked about PDP extending support to the coalition government, Abdullah said it is for that party to decide.

"I cannot speak for the PDP. It is for the PDP to decide what to do. We have no channels of communication with the PDP at the moment as far as I know.

"In due course, let's see what the PDP decides. I can understand the circumstances at the moment and are probably looking more at what happened to their electoral prospects. So let the dust settle then we will see," he said.

On the NC performance in the polls, Abdullah said while he expected to do well, he did not expect such a high number of seats.

"Speaking for myself, I did not expect these kinds of numbers. I did not expect the National Conference to come with these many seats. Yesterday night somebody messaged me, asking how NC will do.

"I said anything around 30 or above will be a good performance. I feel humbled by the faith people have reposed in me but it is scary because we have to live up to this faith and that is our biggest responsibility now," he said.

Reminded about the "We will be back" tweet after his party's defeat in the 2014 assembly polls, Abdullah said he did not expect to wait for 10 years to be back.

"I did not expect to have to wait 10 years. It has been a long wait, all those 10 years, and since 2018 we have been without an elected government at all.

"So, more than being back, I am happy that democracy is back, that democratic rule is being restored to Jammu and Kashmir. So yes, I would rephrase that tweet and say 'democracy is back'," he said.