Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah moved a resolution in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday calling for the immediate and complete restoration of statehood to the Union Territory. The resolution urges the central government to hand back full statehood, including control over law and order, which currently rests with the Lieutenant Governor rather than the elected state government. It explicitly invokes earlier assembly resolutions passed in June 2000 and November 2024 that had also pressed the Centre on constitutional questions affecting Jammu and Kashmir’s status. Moving the resolution, Abdullah reminded the House that the Centre had originally laid out a three-step roadmap for Jammu and Kashmir following the reading down of Article 370: first delimitation of constituencies, then assembly elections, and finally restoration of statehood.
He argued that while the first two steps have been completed, with elections bringing his government to power in October 2024, the promised restoration of full statehood has yet to materialise nearly two years later. The Chief Minister said the resolution was intended to formally place the demand on record and remind the Centre of a commitment it had made rather than to escalate confrontation. BJP legislators strongly objected to the move, and the session saw noisy scenes on the floor as opposition members protested the timing and framing of the resolution. Abdullah, responding to the BJP’s objections, questioned why the party would oppose a demand that successive governments, including some it has been part of, have themselves endorsed in the past.
The resolution, once passed by the House, is to be formally forwarded to the Union government as an official expression of the assembly’s position. Statehood restoration has been a central plank of the National Conference-led government since it took office, and Abdullah has periodically raised the issue in meetings with senior central leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Centre has so far maintained that statehood will be restored at an appropriate time without committing to a specific timeline. Political observers in Srinagar expect the demand to remain a recurring flashpoint between the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government in the assembly sessions ahead.