Cong-led govt falls in J-K, Azad quits as CM | Omar wants fresh polls

IT'S OVER: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will sumbit his resignation to the Governor.

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Keywords: Trust Vote, PDP

Kashmir: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday withdrew the Vote of Confidence in the 87-member state Assembly after failing to gather the numbers to cross the half-way mark.

"I do not wish to put my friends in trouble whose heart is somewhere else and their party whip is somewhere else," Azad was quoted as saying by PTI before driving to Raj Bhavan to tender his resignation to Governor NN Vohra.

Vohra accepted the resignation of Azad and his council of ministers. The Governor requested Azad to continue as Chief Minister till alternate arrangements are made, according to Raj Bhavan sources.

Azad, who government lasted for 43 months, sought permission from the Speaker of the Assembly to withdraw the confidence motion before he went to meet the Governor.

While moving the confidence motion in the Assembly, Azad said that his government was in favour of "clean politics" and not horse-trading.

Reacting to the fall of Azad government, National Conference President Omar Abdullah said, "We are not looking to any pre-poll alliance and we will not stake a claim to form the government."

He also ruled out any alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"We need to get into campaigning mode and predicting any post-poll alliance at this point of time will be premature," Omar said.

The confidence motion was moved after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pulled out of the coalition on the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) land transfer issue reducing the Congress-led government to a minority.

The PDP had withdrawn its support to the government on June 28.

The land transfer of 100 acres of forestland to the SASB for developing facilities for Amarnath pilgrims had led to violent protests in both Jammu and Kashmir.

While protests in Jammu were in favour of the land transfer, those in Kashmir were against it.

Finally, on July 1 the government cancelled the land transfer order to the SASB, which defused tension in the Valley but led to more violent protests in Jammu.

(With inputs from Mufti Islah and Diptosh Majumdar)