Omar Abdullah Overcomes His 'Morning Run Jinx' After J&K Results: 'Told Myself Won't Run Again If…'

With 48 seats, the National Conference (NC) and Congress alliance recorded a thumping victory in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, exceeding even National Conference Vice-President Omar Abdullah’s expectations. After being declared the Chief Minister face of the Union Territory by his father and party chief Farooq Abdullah, Omar, in a candid interview with a news channel, revealed how he overcame his counting day morning run “jinx”.

Omar, who had lost in the last Lok Sabha polls, was unsure of the Assembly poll results. As the counting began at 8 am on Tuesday, he posted on X, writing, “Counting day 7K done. Last time around it didn’t end well for me. InshaAllah this time around it will be better.”

In a fun conversation with India Today TV post results, Omar shared how he had almost decided never to go for morning runs again, but conquered it in the end.

“Last time I ran on counting day, I lost. I was actually in two minds whether I should do it again. I told myself, if I go for a run today and I lose, I will never run again in my life; but if I don’t run, I need to put this jinx away. So I went for a run and I still won, so now I will just keep running when I have to,” he was quoted by India Today TV as saying.

The junior Abdullah said the alliance will stake claim to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir only after the alliance partners meet to elect the leader of the coalition in the assembly.

The CM-designate said the mandate proves that the people have voted against the BJP’s politics in Jammu and Kashmir.

“There was no division of votes in Kashmir and the higher reaches of Jammu. I think the people used their vote thoughtfully. It is now the responsibility of the alliance to provide a clean government which comes up to the expectations of the people,” he added.

Earlier, in Budgam, Abdullah said many attempts were made to destroy his party over the last five years by creating new outfits that have been decimated in this election.

The former chief minister won the Ganderbal and Budgam seats, defeating his nearest rivals from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) by over 10,000 votes and 18,000 votes, respectively.