Omar Abdullah rules out assembly dissolution for dialogue

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday welcomed the willingness shown by the separatist leaders to re-start the dialogue with the central government but ruled out a possible dissolution of the state assembly to facilitate the talks.

"Perhaps some change has come in their (separatists) mindsets when they are talking of working together with us. Earlier, they were reluctant to sit with us (mainstream political parties) at Round Table Conferences. This is a good thing," Abdullah told reporters on the opening day of government offices in winter capital Jammu as part of the 'durbar move'.

The bi-annual 'durbar move' is more than a century-old practice of shifting the seat of the state government to Jammu for the winter months and to Srinagar in summer.

Asked about moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq's suggestion of dissolving the assembly before the dialogue process, Abdullah said the stage had not come for such a decision.

"I don't have the mandate to say or decide on the issue. It is for (National Conference president) Farooq Abdullah and (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi to decide. It's a political decision, they would have to take that," Omar Abdullah said.

The National Conference and the Congress are jointly ruling Jammu and Kashmir. The two had joined hands after the 2008 assembly polls, which threw a fractured mandate.

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( 234 Words)

2009-11-09-15:45:17 (IANS)

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