Chief Minister Omar Abdullah confident of restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday expressed optimism that Jammu and Kashmir will not remain a Union territory for a long time and regain full statehood soon.

Hours before taking oath of office, the National Conference leader told PTI Videos that all ministerial vacancies would not be filled at once but will be filled going ahead as “we are in talks with Congress and also from within my own team.”

On former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal expressing his willingness to share his experience with him on governing a ‘half-state’ like Delhi, Abdullah said, “I have a lot of lessons to learn. I learnt a lot of lessons in six years, made some mistakes and intend not to repeat those mistakes again because it is only a fool who keeps repeating the same mistakes again and again".

"I definitely am not doing that. But nobody is perfect so every day is an opportunity to learn. So yes, one will learn from everybody who has experience governing this country. But again I make the point. I sincerely believe that we will not be a UT for a long time. Therefore this so called half state is very much a temporary phase and we will be a full state soon,” he said.

Abdullah took over as the first chief minister of J-K post abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories. He had earlier ruled the erstwhile state from 2008 to 2014.

Terming the Union territory status of Jammu and Kashmir as unfortunate, he said, “I have always maintained that our status as a UT is temporary one. We have commitments from the Government of India, particularly from the prime minister, home minister and others that statehood will be restored to J-K and we hope that happens at the earliest".

In the meantime, he said his government has a responsibility towards the people.

"We have the mandate from the people to get to work to resolve their problems and that is what we aim to do from day one,” he said.

Abdullah also said that he is generally a positive person, which is not to say that “I am not apprehensive.

"Obviously, there is a lot of nervousness but I have enormous faith in the almighty and he will show the way and I will do the best that I can," he added.