NOW FOR THE HARD PART

WHILE I.N.D.1.A THWARTED THE BJP’S KASHMIR PLANS, OMAR ABDULLAH WILL FIND IT TOUGH TO MEET PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS. GIVEN J&K’S UT STATUS, THE CENTRE HOLDS THE KEY LEVERS OF POWER

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

ОMAR ABDULLAH IS THE FIRST to admit that winning the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls was maybe the easy part. As vice president of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC), he may have scripted electoral history with his party, along with INDIA bloc partner, the Congress, winning a comfortable majority. In doing so, they have thwarted the game plan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government on its own and anoint a BJP CM for the first time in J&K's history. But Omar is fully aware that unlike his previous stint as chief minister between 2008 and 2014, when he headed a JKNC-Congress alliance, his second coming poses enormous challenges. As he puts it, "In my first innings, I was CM of the most empowered state. But now J&K is the country's most disempowered Union Territory. Also, while the win is humbling, the expectations of the people are scary as they are enormous."