Jammu, July 03: Putting at rest speculations of Dr Farooq Abdullah's return as party president, the National Conference chief Omar Abdullah today said he would continue to be president of J&K NC in future. Omar, who chaired a day-long conference of party office bearers here today, told reporters here that nobody had forced out former J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah from the party and it was his own decision to hand over the mantle to his son.
He, however, added in the same breath, "If Dr Abdullah wants to come back to party as it's head, I am ready to leave chair of NC chief." "Not only this if 15000 delegates, who had made me party president at the historic Srinagar Conclave last year approves the return of Dr Farooq Abdullah as NC chief, I would leave the chair," he said.
Omar said news reports like there were being floated to create tension and misunderstanding within the party. "But NC is powerful enough to withstand all," he added. On a question about the party deciding to quit NDA, he said the issue of quitting the multi-party coalition NDA government at the Centre would be decided at the party's central executive meeting.
"When this meeting is held, it would be decided there and then," he said adding that NC never said it would fight contest elections in alliance with NDA.
He said the purpose of joining NDA was only to seek more support for the state from the Centre, although the policies and ideology of NC was different from those of BJP. Bureau Report