SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said he was ready for fresh elections and would not mind losing his chair, if the Centre restored statehood. “I have no attachment to my chair,” he told reporters after teeing off at a golf event in Gulmarg.Reacting to media reports suggesting that the Centre may consider restoring statehood to J&K in the coming months, but on the condition of holding fresh elections, the CM said: “I know where such stories are coming from. It was planted to create fear among MLAs so that they would say, ‘Let us continue for five years’. But, statehood is not for MLAs, nor is it for govt; it is for the people of J&K.”Omar said National Conference would not become an obstacle to restoration of statehood, even if it meant dissolving the current assembly. “If the message is that the Assembly will be dissolved for statehood to be restored, then so be it,” he said. “The day you restore statehood to J&K, the very next day we will ask the governor to dissolve the Assembly.”“Statehood is our constitutional and political right,” Omar asserted. “It cannot be used as a bargaining chip. Don’t threaten us through planted stories.”His father and NC president Farooq Abdullah, who was in Anantnag on Tuesday, said J&K was downgraded into a Union Territory (UT) because of its Muslim majority character. There was no justification for revoking the statehood, he added.Addressing party delegates in Dooru area, Farooq said: “We are not enemies of India. We chose to join India in 1947 when Pakistan was at our doorstep.”The current Assembly in J&K was elected in Oct 2024 in the first elections held after J&K was stripped of its special status as well as statehood, and was bifurcated into two UTs, in Aug 2019. NC emerged as the single largest party in the 90-member House.Omar, who was at an award ceremony for golfers and hoteliers at Gulmarg Golf Championship, expressed frustration over the continuous closure of tourist destinations in Kashmir, stating that it was not giving good signals to incoming tourists.He recalled the past glory of Gulmarg golf Course, and declared that his govt was determined to make Gulmarg a world-class golfing destination once again.The CM, who also holds the tourism portfolio, emphasised the need for a tourist-friendly attitude. “We must see every tourist not as a one-time visitor, but as a potential repeat guest. Their satisfaction should be our benchmark,” he asserted.
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