Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said that his hope about the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir is fading, PTI reported.

“My well-wishers told me something big for Jammu and Kashmir will be announced from Delhi on Independence Day,” the chief minister said during his Independence Day address in Srinagar. “I was even told that papers were being prepared [for statehood]. We waited, but nothing happened.”

Abdullah further announced that over the coming eight weeks, he and his team would go door to door across all 90 Assembly constituencies to collect signatures in support of restoring statehood, The Indian Express reported. These signatures will be presented before the Supreme Court, he said.

“We will ask them if they want J&K to be a state again or not,” Abdullah said. “… If they are not ready, then I will accept my defeat and accept that J&K is satisfied with these conditions.

Abdullah also called the Supreme Court’s remarks on Thursday as unfortunate, The Indian Express reported. He said that while Pakistan was “punished for “three-four days”, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who have raised their voices against such attacks, have been punished for years.

“We are not with the Pahalgam attackers,” the National Conference leader said. “We do not accept the Pahalgam attack. But despite that, today the Pahalgam attack is being used to deny us statehood.”

On Thursday, the court noted that ground realities in the Union Territory, including incidents such as the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, cannot be ignored.

Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir

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.

In January, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said that he wanted to give the Centre the “first opportunity” to restore the Union Territory’s statehood before seeking legal recourse.

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