Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah announced that his son, Omar Abdullah, will be the next chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after the party, in alliance with Congress, crossed the halfway mark in the election results on Tuesday. Addressing the media, Farooq Abdullah said, "The people have given their mandate. They have shown that they do not accept the decision made on August 5 (referring to the abrogation of Article 370). Omar Abdullah will be the chief minister."

Omar Abdullah echoed his father's confidence, expressing gratitude for the voter support. "Though the complete results are still awaited, it is clear that the National Conference has received significant backing. We thank the voters for this victory and will strive to prove worthy of their trust," he said. At the time of the report, the NC had secured seven constituencies and was leading in 34, while their ally Congress was ahead on six seats, placing the alliance comfortably over the halfway mark of 46 in the 90-member Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

Omar Abdullah, who contested from both Budgam and Ganderbal constituencies, has won in Budgam by a margin of 18,485 votes and is leading in Ganderbal by 9,766 votes after 15 rounds of counting. After early trends favored the NC-Congress alliance, Omar Abdullah took a jab at exit polls, which had forecast a hung assembly in the region. He tweeted, "If you pay for exit polls or waste time discussing them, you deserve all the jokes/memes/ridicule. That’s why I called them a waste of time a few days ago."

Earlier this year, Omar Abdullah had contested the Lok Sabha elections from Baramulla but lost to Independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid.

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