Jammu, Oct 8: Surging ahead with a literal red wave across Jammu and Kashmir, the National Conference (NC) Tuesday emerged as the single largest party with 42 seats, in one of the most keenly fought and watched elections to the 90-member J&K Legislative Assembly.Party-wise results announced today saw BJP securing 29 seats; Congress six; Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) three; People Conference (PC) one; CPI (M) one; Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) one, and independents seven seats,Though no single party managed to touch the halfway mark on its own yet, NC-Congress combine, which was a pre-poll alliance, was comfortably placed at 48, two seats above the simple majority mark of 46 required for government formation.Even, in the eventuality of a majority mark taken as 48, if five (to be) nominated MLAs are added to 90 elected MLAs, the magic number (48) needed for government formation is with the NC-Congress combine.Moreover, winning candidate of CPI-M Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami has already offered support to the INDIA bloc.PDP, being part of the INDIA alliance, has also expressed its willingness to support “any secular alliance” (read Congress-NC) to “keep BJP out of power.” Its support was endorsed by Farooq Abdullah as well.So, the final tally has paved the way for the formation of its (NC’s) coalition government in J&K, with alliance partner Congress, to be helmed by NC Vice President Omar Abdullah,Immediately after it became clear that the NC-Congress combine was back in the saddle, comfortably placed, NC President Farooq Abdullah made an announcement in this connection (Omar as the next CM). Now for him (Omar), it will be his second stint as the CM.Ally Congress, however, could secure only six seats during these elections, held after a hiatus of 10 years. The party, despite being in its resurgent Avatar, saw its tally reduced to half when compared to the 2014 elections. In 2014, Congress had bagged 12 seats.Results of three-phased assembly elections, conducted on September 18, 25, and October 1, announced today saw NC emerging as a dominant force in J&K, reclaiming its space (lost in 2014) with aplomb in 2024. NC registered an almost three-fold increase in its tally this time while it could secure only 15 seats in the 2014 assembly elections.
