NC Says Don’t Read Too Much Into Absence Of Abdullahs From Kumaraswamy Oath Taking

The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party today said one should not read too much into the absebce of its top leaders, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah from Karnataka chief minister H.D Kumaraswamy’s oath taking ceremony in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

“Please don’t read too much into it. Dr. Farooq Abdullah was busy at a function and the party working president Omar Abdullah is outside the country,” Tanvir Sadiq, advisor to Omar Abdullah told Outlook.

He said the party was represented by Mubarak Gul at the oath taking ceremony. “Gul sahab is a senior leader of the party and he has remained as Speaker of the House”, Sadiq said. He said the fact that the NC representative went to the oath taking ceremony means that the NC was with the grand coalition. “Farooq sahab had a prior appointment otherwise he would have also attended the function”, Sadiq said.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah also said he was busy at a book launch in Delhi and the party’s representative attended the function. “We were represented by party leader Mubarak Gul”, Dr Abdullah told Outlook.

National Conference and Congress had forged an alliance and formed government in Jammu and Kashmir from 2008 to 2014 with Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister.

Kumaraswamy took oath in the presence of more than a dozen non-BJP top leaders from across the country. Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi attended the ceremony along with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal and Chandrababu Naidu along with Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati.

Naseer Ganai in Srinagar