The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday extended its support to the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, reported ANI.

Mehraj Malik, the Aam Aadmi Party’s only elected legislator in Jammu and Kashmir, submitted the party’s letter of support to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.

Malik won the Doda seat in the recently concluded Assembly elections. The National Conference, in alliance with the Congress, swept the polls.

While the National Conference won 42 out of the 90 seats contested, the Congress clinched six. Their ally, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), won one seat.

At the national level, all four parties are partners in the INDIA bloc, which was formed to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance at the Centre.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led party’s support to the National Conference came two days after it said it would contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections alone against an “overconfident” Congress, reported PTI.

“The Congress has had zero seats in the Delhi assembly for the past 10 years, yet AAP gave Congress three seats in the Lok Sabha polls; still they did not feel necessary to take allies along in Haryana,” said party spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar.

Seat-sharing talks between the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress broke down ahead of the Haryana Assembly elections, the results of which were also announced on Tuesday. The BJP won the polls clinching 48 seats in the 90-member House. The Congress won 37 seats while the Aam Aadmi Party did not win any.

The Congress on Friday also formally extended its support to the National Conference to form the new government in Jammu and Kashmir with Abdullah as the chief minister, reported The Hindu.

On Thursday, four Independent MLAs also extended their support to the National Conference, bringing its tally in the House to 46 seats.

Later in the day, party vice president Omar Abdullah was elected as the leader of the National Conference legislature party.

The recently concluded Assembly election was the first in Jammu and Kashmir in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.

Article 370 gave special status to the erstwhile state. The Centre in August 2019 also bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Also read: Behind the National Conference’s resurgence, the judgement of the Kashmiri voter