| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Coalition Government Likely in Jammu and Kashmir |
| 2008-12-30 |
| No clear winner emerged in elections in India's troubled Jammu and Kashmir region, according to results released Sunday, but a new coalition led by the regional National Conference party was likely to assume power in the assembly. No single party gained enough seats to form a government on its own, but the National Conference is expected to ally with the Congress party. The former, which was in the opposition for the past six years, won in 28 out of 87 constituencies. The Congress party won in 17. The leader of the National Conference, Omar Abdullah, told reporters his party was ready to form a government with the "like-minded Congress party." The two parties have traditionally been allies. "People have voted for a coalition government. We are the only two in a position to provide a stable government," Abdullah told television reporters in Srinagar, the region's summer capital. The two parties were engaged in back-channel talks late Sunday. The staggered, seven-phased polls, held amid heavy security, witnessed an unexpectedly high voter turnout of 61.5 percent despite a boycott call by separatists who oppose Indian rule in Kashmir. In the last election, in 2002, voter turnout was about 43 percent. "I think the large turnout in Kashmir is a vote for democracy and national integration. We are all happy at the turnout, and who wins or loses is a secondary issue," said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who heads India's Congress-ruled government. |
| Posted by:Fred |