As early trends suggest the National Conference-Congress alliance will form the government in Jammu and Kashmir, NC vice president Omar Abdullah said the Bharatiya Janata Party and lieutenant governor should respect the people’s mandate and should not indulge in ‘jugaad’ if the mandate is against them.
Addressing presspersons, Abdullah said there should not be any fiddling with people’s mandate. “Transparency should be there. Whatever happens, it should be done in a transparent manner. There should be no fiddling with the people's mandate. If the mandate of the people is against the BJP, then the BJP should not indulge in any 'jugaad' (machinations) or something else," PTI reported quoting Abdullah.
The NC leader said the Raj Bhavan and the Centre should accept public’s mandate. Abdullah expressed hope that the alliance would form government in Jammu and Kashmir and they will decide on taking support from Peoples’ Democratic Party once the final results are out. “Alliance has neither sought any support, nor has it received any from the PDP yet. Let the results come out first. No one has numbers yet," he said.
Abdullah is contesting from two assembly seats -- Budgam and Ganderbal -- in this election, and he is leading in both seats. As per the election commission, after four rounds of counting, Ganderbal, he is leading against PDP’s Bashar Ahmed Mir by a margin of 3,942 votes. In Budgam, he is leading by a margin of over 6,000 votes against PDP’s Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi.