Hilal Akbar Lone Says No Temptation Can Shake His Loyalty to National Conference

National Conference MLA Hilal Akbar Lone has publicly rejected talk of a rebellion in the party. In a post on X on Sunday, the Sonawari legislator said no force, temptation or hunger for power could shake his loyalty to the NC and its leadership.

The rumours began after Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expanded his Council of Ministers on October 27. A day later, several MLAs met at a colleague's home, and the gathering was quickly read as a sign of unhappiness in the ruling party.

Lone, who was there, says that reading is wrong. He said some people had given the meeting a different colour and that he never went with any plan to abandon his leader or his party.

He leaned on family history to make his case. His father, Mohd Akbar Lone, is a former MP and minister who devoted his life to the party. Lone said Omar Abdullah himself announced his candidacy from Sonawari, and that neither he nor his father lobbied for the ticket.

The party had already played down the episode. Provincial secretary (Kashmir) Showkat Mir called Friday's meeting a cordial get-together ahead of the Darbar Move, the twice-yearly shift of government between Jammu in winter and Srinagar in summer.

Lone did leave a door open. If legislators have genuine concerns, he said, they will take them to the chief minister once he is back from Delhi. "Nobody can stop us" from raising them, he said. He then urged colleagues to end the debate and focus on improving people's lives.

He also accused those pushing a different interpretation of creating confusion, either at the opposition's behest or for vested interests. Why it matters: in a government that is still young, even a dinner-table meeting after a reshuffle can be read as a power signal.

Read the original report on The Tribune.

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