Jammu and Kashmir appeared to be heading for Governor’s rule with caretaker Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announcing on Thursday that he had decided to step down, and no breakthrough in sight in talks between PDP and BJP to form the new government. Governor N N Vohra is learnt to have sent a report to the President, outlining the options available to the Central government. In his report, Vohra is learnt to have suggested, among other things, a brief spell of Governor’s rule since no party or alliance was in a position to come up with the numbers required to form a government after the highly-fractured verdict in the Assembly elections. The Governor’s report came after Omar met him on Wednesday evening after his return from London after a 12-day visit to his ailing parents and asked him to relieve him as caretaker Chief Minister. As per rules, the new government in Jammu and Kashmir should be formed by January 19, otherwise the Central rule would be imposed in the state. Over several days, PDP (28 seats) and BJP (25 seats) have been holding talks for forming a ruling alliance, however, the deliberations remained inconclusive. The political impasse in the state took a new turn on Thursday after Omar announced that he has asked the Governor to relieve him of the position of caretaker CM. “Just to confirm I did meet Gov Vohra sahib last night & ask him to relieve me as caretaker CM. I had agreed to stay temporarily,’’ Omar tweeted. A day after the December 23 results in which National Conference (NC) had faced heavy defeat, Omar had met the Governor and resigned from the post of chief minister. Vohra, however, had asked him to continue as caretaker CM. Omar said that he had assumed that the government formation would be a matter of a week or 10 days. “Today we seem even further away from that goal than we were 10 days ago.’’ In another tweet, he said: “It is now for the @jkpdp to explain to the people that with 28 MLAs & offers of support from two other parties why the state has central rule.” He said interests of the state would only be served by a full time administrator and not a caretaker. “Given the situation on the border with 10,000 displaced, the hardships of winter & the continuing need for relief for flood affected,” Omar tweeted. Meanwhile, BJP leader and Kashmir affairs in-charge Ramesh Arora said: “Earlier, PDP showed some interest and talks were held between BJP and PDP leaders, but now no serious discussion over formation of the government is going on.’’ PDP spokesman, however, said that all options on the government formation were still open.
