Omar Abdullah hails pan-J&K presence of NC, predicts delay in conducting Assembly election

Weighing in on the DDC poll results, NC vice president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday asserted that no one can put an end to the existence of his party in Jammu and Kashmir. While NC emerged as the second-largest party with 67 seats, the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration swept the polls with 110 seats. Conceding that his party could have performed better in some areas, he claimed that a delay in the Assembly election was imminent as the opposition alliance had trounced BJP. 

To buttress his point, he contended that the dates for the election should have been announced by now if BJP believed in democracy. Speaking to the media, the former J&K CM also downplayed the win of three BJP candidates- Er. Aijaz Hussain, Aijaz Ahmed Khan, and Mina Lateef won in the Kashmir valley. Maintaining that his party had a pan-J&K presence, Abdullah cited NC's win from 35 constituencies in the Jammu region. 

Read: 'Democracy Has Won': Union Minister VK Singh Hails Conduct Of DDC Polls Against The Odds

DDC polls verdict

The DDC election was conducted in 8 phases between November 28 and December 19, with a voter turnout of 51.42%. It was the first big election held after the revocation of J&K's special status. Requisite amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act 1989 and J&K Panchayati Raj Rules 1996 enabled the setting up of District Development Councils. The DDC which will have a term of 5 years replaces the District Planning and Development Boards which were headed by a Cabinet Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K.

As a part of the PAGD, NC, PDP, JKPC, CPI(M) and JKPM bagged 67, 27, 8, 5 and three seats respectively. After winning 26 seats in the DDC election, Congress too has decided to support the opposition alliance. On the other hand, BJP too made inroads in the Union Territory by becoming the single-largest party with 75 seats. However, the newly formed Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) could not make a substantive impact gaining only 12 seats. Independents too made a major dent with 50 seats. As per BJP's DDC polls in-charge Anurag Thakur, the combined vote share of BJP and Independents amounts to a little over 52%. 

Read: Chidambaram Sees 'good Signs' In DDC Polls Results After Congress Wins 26 Of 118 Contested

Speaking exclusively with Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami on Tuesday, the MoS Finance asserted that the people wanted to move towards development. Moreover, he hailed the results as a "win for democracy". Meanwhile, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti contended that the people's verdict was a rejection of the decision to abrogate Article 370.

Read: Former BJP Minister Choudhary Loses DDC Election In Jammu By 11 Votes