Omar Abdullah after his defeat

By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, October 11 (IslamOnline)—The Abdullahs, who ruled Jammu and Kashmir state for nearly half a century, have finally been voted out of power, according to vote counting, after the fourth and last round of polls ended October 8.

The family’ s candidate for chief minister, Omar Abdullah, son of the present chief minister Farooq Abdullah, lost election for the Ganderbal constituency, a traditional stronghold of the dynasty.

Omar Abdullah is the federal junior foreign minister and was projected by his party, National Conference, as the next chief minister of the state as his father was planning to move on, vacating the seat for him.

At a public meeting last June chief minister Farooq Abdullah put a ceremonial cap on his son’ s head symbolising the transfer of leadership from father to son. At a similar ceremony 20 years ago, the chief minister’ s father, Shaikh Mohammad Abdullah, had passed the baton on to Farooq Abdullah.

The family ruled J&K since independence except for brief inter-regimes, in one of which another branch of the family - the chief minister’ s brother-in-law GM Shah - ruled the state. Omar Abdullah formally conceded defeat Thursday, October 10 and said that he will resign from the federal cabinet next week after the return of Prime Minister AB Vajpayee from his current foreign tour.

Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah also said he will be resigning within the next few days after the meeting of his party executive.

Omar Abdullah said his party National Conference (NC) would not claim to form the government. In the 87-seat state legislative assembly, Omar's party has managed to win 28 seats which is very short of the simple majority in the assembly.

According to the final results announced this evening the Congress Party has won 21, People's Democratic Party (PDP) 15, BJP 1, while other smaller parties and independents have bagged 28 seats. BJP too has been trounced in its stronghold Jammu where it won 8 seats in the last elections in 1996.

It is going to be a hung assembly as no single party is going to win a decisive majority to form the government. A situation like this is very good for smaller parties and independents which every party (or group of parties) woos to form a government.

Qazi Afzal who defeated Omar Abdullah

Congress and its ally PDP are going to claim forming a government together. Omar Abdullah said the Congress coalition government would be short-lived.

PDP is a breakaway from the Congress Party and its president Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the federal home minister about a decade ago. An old Congressite, he headed the Congress Party in Kashmir for about two decades before he left it to join Janata Dal. He later left Janata Dal and formed his own PDP which is limited to Kashmir. Mufti Sayeed is tipped to be the next chief minister.

Omar Abdullah said a coalition government would further destabilize the state as there would be no cohesion between the ruling parties to keep the state steady.

There were clear signs of an anti-incumbency wave in the state. Though the Abdullahs would not accept it, people wanted to get rid of them badly. The Abdullahs’ making common cause with avowedly anti-Muslim BJP did not go well with the electorate, mostly Muslim.

The Abdullahs bled the state white with their corruption and nepotism. They also failed to contain terrorism or protect the ordinary people of Kashmir while they themselves lived behind high security zones. Just for the sake of remaining in power in the state and a ministerial berth for Omar at the Centre, they joined hands with the worst anti-Muslim party in India, the BJP which is intensely hated in Kashmir.

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