Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hoped that 2025 would be kinder and easier for him than the year that went by.
Taking to X, the CM said, “2024 has been one hell of a year, when it was good it was amazing & when it was bad it really sucked. 2025 please go easier on my poor heart”.
He was recalling the trying times he personally underwent in 2024. He had a double victory in the Legislative Assembly elections. He won both from Ganderbal and Budgam constituencies shocking his opponents. Omar Abdullah had suffered a humiliating defeat before his double victory when the incarcerated leader, Engineer Rashid defeated him by over two lakh votes in the Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla constituency.
It was in 2024 that Omar said he would not stand for the Assembly elections as long as J&K remained a union territory. He had to change his stand and finally chose to stand for the Assembly polls.
Despite remaining steadfast in his political commitment to fight for regaining J&K, what his party, the National Conference (NC) calls its ‘unconstitutionally usurped rights’, neither Omar Abdullah nor any of his party leaders expected to win 42 seats out of the 90 seats which went to polls for the Legislative Assembly.
The NC’s decision to form a pre-poll alliance with the Congress party stemmed from the fact that the NC was not sure about winning a simple majority on its own.
The decision completely backfired. As the Congress won five seats conceded to it in the Valley by the NC, it could not go beyond one seat in the Jammu division.
The NC had left even those seats for the Congress to fight against the BJP in the Jammu division, where it had a strong political presence. The result was that the BJP won 29 seats out of the 43 seats in the Jammu division.
Some grace to the INDIA bloc alliance was given by the NC by winning some seats in the Poonch, Ramban and Rajouri districts of the Jammu division.
With hindsight, the NC believes it could have won at least four more seats had it not left the seats uncontested in favour of the Congress.
Omar Abdullah has said in the past that it has been his experience that during electoral alliances, party vote banks do not get converted to favour the alliance partners.
This is what precisely happened to the NC-Congress pre-poll alliance in J&K. The seats left for the Congress by the NC in Jammu division resulted in a BJP-Congress direct contest.
The fact is that Omar Abdullah’s belief about vote banks not getting converted to favour alliances proved right in the Jammu division.
While tasting the victory of winning 42 Assembly seats, the NC was left with a bitter aftertaste of having conceded seats to the Congress it could have safely won itself.
There were other worrisome developments for Omar Abdullah in 2024 after coming to power. His fight for restoration of statehood remained on.
Omar Abdullah hopes 2025 will be softer, smoother and kinder to him politically and administratively.
He is the chief minister of J&K for the second time, but times have changed as Article 370 has been abrogated and J&K is a union territory.
