Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday raised the issue of statehood for the Union Territory and termed the dual governance model as a “recipe for disaster”.

In an interview with PTI, Abdullah urged the Centre to keep its promise and restore statehood to the region at the earliest.

He also cited repeated promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah during election campaigns regarding the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.

“Let me just say this, having two power centres anywhere is a recipe for disaster… No organisation works well if there are multiple power centres…. there is a reason why our sports team has one captain. You don’t have two captains,” Omar Abdullah told PTI.

“Similarly, you don’t have two prime ministers or two power centres in the government of India. And most of India has one elected chief minister who is empowered with their cabinet to take decisions,” he added.

Abdullah further cited the example of Delhi where the Aam Aadmi Party-led government shares power with the lieutenant governor.

He underlined that Delhi is after all a small city state, while Jammu and Kashmir is a large and strategic region bordering China and Pakistan, making its need for a unified command far greater.

“So no. In the two months that I’ve been chief minister, I have yet to come across a single example where J-K has benefited out of being a Union Territory. Not one. There’s not a single example of governance or development that has come to J-K by virtue of it being a Union Territory,” he said.

Jammu-Kashmir was reorganised into a Union Territory in August 2019 under an Act of Parliament after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which had given the erstwhile state special powers and status.

Last year, the Supreme Court had directed the Election Commission to hold assembly elections in the state.

Assembly elections were held in September in which Abdullah’s National Conference won 41 of the 90 seats. Its ally, the Congress party, won six seats. The BJP won 28 seats.