NC emerges single-largest party in J&K

A resurgent National Conference (NC) today emerged the single-largest party in a hung assembly in Jammu and Kashmir and is all poised to stake claim for forming the next government with Congress support.

NC, which has got 28 seats, exactly the same number it had in the dissolved assembly, said it will approach "like minded" Congress, which bagged 17 seats, for forming the next government after the five-week seven-phased polls that recorded a high 61 per cent turn-out defying separatists' boycott calls and militant guns. Congress lost three seats.

Back-channel talks have already begun between the two parties, sources said, adding Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who is said to have good equations with Omar, is expected to play a key role in forging a partnership.

An NC-Congress combine can cross the magic half-way mark of 44 in a House of 87 but there there are six independents besides the three-member Panthers Party from whom it could also count on for support.

The PDP, which shared power with Congress on a rotational basis for last six years, came second with a tally of 21 seats, a gain of five over the 2002 elections.

Cashing in on the Amarnath land row, the BJP put up an impressive performance clinching 11 of the 37 seats at stake in Jammu region. The saffron party had only one seat in the last assembly. The CPI-M could only win one of the two seats it had.

38-year-old Omar Abdullah, the scion of the Abdullah family, who steered NC for a shot at power, said his party would approach the Congress for forming the next government.