SRINAGAR, 11 October — The long-ruling National Conference party in India’s troubled Kashmir state was swept out of power, results showed yesterday.
The National Conference (NC), whose dynastic leadership has dominated Kashmir for half a century, lost more than half of its assembly seats. Its chief, India’s Minister of State Foreign Affairs Omar Abdullah, suffered a humiliating defeat in his home constituency.
Omar while conceding defeat said his party will play a major role in shaping up the future politics of the state as a responsible opposition.
The big winners were the Congress, India’s main opposition party, and the regional People’s Democratic Party, which secured 22 and 15 seats respectively in the 87-member assembly.
They are now tipped to form a coalition to rule the restive Himalayan state.
Both parties favor Indian rule in divided Kashmir but have called for unconditional talks with separatists.
Fifteen independents were also elected and other parties won eight seats. The National Conference, which had held 57 seats, went down to only 29.
Conceding defeat a visibly disappointed Farooq Abdullah, the chief minister of the restive Himalayan region, said he will resign today following the drubbing of his party in the assembly elections.
The National Conference received the biggest setback in the Ganderbal seat from where its President Omar Abdullah was defeated by PDP candidate by a margin of 3,690 votes.
The main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, welcomed the defeat of the National Conference, under whose reign two of the group’s seven executive members have been jailed by state police.
“The National Conference is out and if the PDP and the Congress can cobble up a coalition and can keep their word and promises to the people ... maybe we can move forward,” Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat told AFP.
The Hurriyat had urged a boycott of the four-phase election, alleging rigging in the last election in 1996 that brought the NC to power. It called instead for a plebiscite on the status of Kashmir, which is held in part by both India and Pakistan and claimed by both. “Our ministers couldn’t save their seats, so many things have happened,” said the 32-year-old British-born political novice. The junior foreign minister blamed his party’s “closeness to New Delhi” as a reason for the defeat.
Meanwhile, 20 suspected militants gunned down by India’s security forces were among 23 people killed in a day of violence in Indian-administered Kashmir, an army spokesman said yesterday.
