'Autonomy resolution within 30-days if voted to power'

National Conference (NC) president and MP Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said that if his party is voted to power with absolute majority, it will bring an autonomy resolution in the State Assembly within a month.

“If I am blessed with good health by Allah and we are voted to power with absolute majority, I promise that I will make this happen (regional autonomy) within 30 days after assuming power,” he said while welcoming expelled ex-BJP MLA Gagan Bhagat into the party fold in Jammu.

Jammu and Kashmir is presently under President’s Rule as six months of Governor's Rule ended on December 19. The central rule was imposed in the state after the fall of the People's Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government on June 19. Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Assembly on 21 November.

Assembly polls are likely to be held in April-May along with the Lok Sabha elections.

In June 2000, when the NC was in power and Abdullah was the Chief Minister, the J&K Assembly had passed a resolution seeking to restore the pre-1953 constitutional position in the state as it felt that “acceptance of the resolution would set the clock back and reverse the natural process of harmonizing the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the integrity of the nation.”

However, the resolution was rejected by the then Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. While the NC was alliance partner of the then NDA-government at the Center with Omar Abdullah holding portfolio of MoS in the Vajpayee government, the party didn’t end its alliance with the BJP.

The NC had to pay a huge price for that in the subsequent Assembly elections in 2002 as the party could win only 28 seats in the 87-member Assembly. In 1996, the NC had 58 MLAs as the party swept the polls on the promise of the restoration of autonomy to the state.

In 2016, when the NC was in opposition, the party submitted a fresh resolution in the state Assembly, asking the Government of India to reconsider the resolution passed by both the houses in 2000.