INDIA: The nearly half a century rule of the Abdullah dynasty over Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir has ended, following its rout in state assembly elections, the results of which were announced yesterday.
Omar Abdullah, the 32-year-old leader of the ruling National Conference whose mother is English, failed to win even his own seat as the party founded by his grandfather suffered unexpected setbacks.
It secured 29 seats, 28 less than the number it won in the 87-member legislature in the 1996 elections.
"It's a surprise [the defeat], but I am ready to sit in Opposition," a visibly shattered Omar Abdullah said, nervously biting his nails after losing Ganderbal, widely considered a "safe" family seat on the outskirts of Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar.
"Factionalism within my own party and certain political weaknesses led to my defeat. There are lessons to be learnt from it," said the westernised Omar after failing to inspire locals who worshipped his grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, better known as the Lion of Kashmir who was the disputed state's first leader following India's independence 55 years ago.
The Opposition Congress and the People's Democratic Party who will form Kashmir's coalition government by the weekend, won 22 and 15 seats respectively in the disputed, war-torn state wracked by the 13-year-old Muslim insurgency for independence that has claimed over 35,000 lives. The coalition is likely to be supported by 20 independent and other, smaller party candidates to make up the requisite assembly majority of 44 legislators.
Speaking Kashmiri haltingly and unfamiliar with local issues Omar, who is a junior foreign minister in the federal coalition, took control earlier this year of his family party that was plagued by internal dissension, corruption and bad governance under his father Farooq Abdullah, the outgoing chief minister. Abdullah is notorious for his flamboyant lifestyle, extended overseas holidays and passion for golf.
"I am not worried by the election results. These things happen in politics and will teach Omar a lesson," Farooq Abdullah said on his return home from South Africa. Abdullah has retired from active state politics, but remains his party's patriarch. India's Hindu-nationalist-led federal coalition, meanwhile, was hoping to use Kashmir's assembly election to try and resolve Kashmir's bloody insurgency, but analysts anticipate that a coalition government that includes the Congress party, which is hostile to the central administration, might lead to a stalemate.
"A coalition government in Srinagar is likely to further complicate the vexatious Kashmir problem, " a senior security official said, declining to be named.
Mainstream separatists boycotted the poll while militants launched a wave of grenade, landmine and gun attacks to try and sabotage the election in the run up to which over 750 people, including political workers, candidates and security forces personnel were killed.