It is Congress’ call to support us externally or through alliance, says NC leader

New Delhi, Oct 16: As Omar Abdullah gears up to take oath as the Chief Minister of J&K on Wednesday, senior leader of National Conference (NC) Sheikh Bashir shared with IANS the party’s stand on taking its alliance partners together.

NC has invited INDIA bloc leaders to attend Omar Abdullah's swearing-in ceremony. On the occasion, and with regard to talks about Congress supporting NC externally, Sheikh Bashir said: “It is for Congress to decide whether it will support NC through an alliance or externally. But we fought together in the pre-poll alliance. It is up to them if they choose to support us externally.”

Explaining further, he said: “It could be their internal matter and situation; they may not have decided who will be in the ministry.”

However, with regard to the party’s take on its alliance partners, given that NC holds a majority, Bashir reiterated what Farooq Abdullah, President of NC, recently said: “We have to take everyone together because given the issues of Jammu and Kashmir, every party and everyone that has been elected will have a role to play.”

Jammu & Kashmir has an elected government after a decade and this will be the NC Vice President Omar Abdullah’s second term as CM. His previous term ended in 2014 when J&K was a state inclusive of Ladakh. After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, the state was split into two Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.