Will work for all irrespective of voting pattern: CM during 1st Jammu visit after taking oath

On his first visit to Jammu city after becoming the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Saturday said his government is for all irrespective of the voting pattern during the recently held Assembly polls.

“When the election results were out, some rumours were spread that Jammu will be punished because they have not voted for the National Conference-Congress coalition candidates. But I make it clear that this government will be for all, irrespective of whether anyone had voted for it or not,” said Omar. He was speaking to the workers at the NC office in Jammu where he was accorded a rousing reception by party leaders and workers who raised slogans praising him and the NC.

While the NC was able to win 42 seats, mostly in Kashmir region, BJP got 29 seats in Jammu region. The vote share of BJP was 25.64 per cent while that of NC was 23.43 per cent. He said that he wanted to see the missing smiles back on the faces of both Kashmir and Jammu region.

Omar said the NC was under no compulsion to appoint a Deputy Chief Minister like the previous coalition governments headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Ghulam Nabi Azad and himself to give representation to both the regions. “The Congress has so far not taken any decision to join the new cabinet. We took a decision and appointed a deputy chief minister from our own party,” he said. Surinder Choudhary from the Jammu region was appointed as the Deputy CM.

“It was an answer to those who used to say during the election campaign that NC is a Kashmir-based dynastic party of Muslims and it cannot tolerate leaders from Jammu. Now we have a deputy CM who is a Hindu and has nothing to do with my family,” the CM said.

The chief minister also assured mediapersons that his government will not interfere in their functioning, saying democracy is incomplete without an independent press. “My government will ensure that no injustice is done with the mediapersons. They are free to criticise any shortcoming in my government,” he said.