Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said that he wanted to give the Centre the “first opportunity” to restore the Union Territory’s statehood before seeking legal recourse, The Indian Express reported.

The National Conference leader told reporters that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself committed to restorating the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. “Every government or every individual has recourse to courts,” Abdullah said. “But that was never going to be our first option.”

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre had abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to the erstwhile state, in August 2019. It also bifurcated the state into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

In December 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 2019 order abrogating Article 370 and ordered the Centre to restore statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

On Thursday, the chief minister noted that the Centre was not blind to the “benefits” of the recent Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The National Conference-Congress alliance won the recent Assembly polls in the Union Territory and Abdullah became the chief minister. The elections were the first in Jammu and Kashmir in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Article 370.

“The biggest promise the Central government made to J&K [ahead of the elections] is restoration of statehood,” Abdullah said. “When the Supreme Court gave its verdict…it said that statehood should be restored ‘as soon as possible’. It has been a year and we believe that that’s enough.”

Abdullah added that the biggest responsibility of the state government was to respect “the sentiments and aspirations” of residents. The chief minister also noted that dual power centres were a problem in running the government, but said there was no pressure from the Centre, the Raj Bhavan or the BJP to “change our thinking or our language or our agenda”, he added.

“From the first day, the PM [prime minister] and the HM [home minister] have told me that ‘You have been given the mandate and we are in the Opposition. There will be no effort to destabilise this government. The support that we extended to the lieutenant governor will be extended to you. We will respect the mandate of the people of J&K,’” Abdullah said. “These are the words of the PM and HM.”

However, “one of the peculiarities” of a Union Territory was that dual systems of power were built into the structure of governance, he said, adding that his government was “understanding where our authority begins and ends”.

The system needed clarity, Abdullah said, adding that the rules of business demarcating powers needed to be specified at the earliest, according to The Indian Express.

The Centre is yet to release a comprehensive set of business rules for Jammu and Kashmir, which will define the roles, responsibilities and powers of the chief minister, cabinet ministers and the administrative secretaries of the Union Territory.

Abdullah’s remarks came amid reports of a rift between his government and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. However, the chief minister called this “more a figment of imagination than reality”.