Thu Oct 10 16:21:25 UTC 2024: ## Omar Abdullah Elected Leader of JKNC Legislature Party, Government Formation Process to Begin Friday

**Srinagar, India:** Omar Abdullah, son of former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, has been unanimously elected as the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) legislature party. This decision came after a meeting of the party’s newly elected MLAs held at the party headquarters on Thursday.

The JKNC, with its 42 seats, emerged as the single largest party in the recent Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. The party, along with its pre-poll alliance partners Congress (6 seats) and CPI(M) (1 seat), has secured a comfortable majority in the 95-member House.

Farooq Abdullah, the JKNC president, announced that a meeting of the alliance partners will take place on Friday to discuss and initiate the process of government formation in the Union Territory.

While the restoration of Article 370 was a key pre-poll promise of the JKNC, Omar Abdullah has stated that he does not expect its reinstatement from the current government at the centre. He emphasized that the immediate priority of the new government will be the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.

“None of us are foolish enough, not did we try and convince the voters that we were going to work on our 370 agenda with this current (Modi) government in Delhi,” Abdullah told a TV channel. “We know that you are not going to get it back from the government that took it away. So set that aside for now,” he added.

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