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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Friday said 'credibility among the people' was more important than 'actual numbers' in the assembly.
In an interview to the All India Radio here, Sayeed said, "The previous government lost the opportunity it had got in 1996 to change the situation."
Sayeed will seek a vote of confidence in the floor of the state assembly to be held on November 21.
All the newly elected MLAs would be administered oath by the pro-term Speaker Abdul Aziz Zargar on November 18.
"Good performance builds credibility and if the government was credible in the eyes of the public it would be stable. I would rather concentrate on earning people's trust for my government than worry about the numbers," he said.
"People are watching the new government with expectations. So much of euphoria has been created and I am worried how not to fail my people," he said. "People's pressure will force us to deliver."
The chief minister said he will fulfil the pledges made in the Common Minimum Programme and reorganise the Special Operations Group. "We will also not implement the Prevention of Terrorism Act and gradually release political detainees against whom there are no charges."
"The solution to the problems facing Jammu and Kashmir is not in using force, but in winning over the alienated people," he added.
Expressing his deep faith in the democracy, the chief minister said, "It was a battle of ideas not bullets."
Mufti said that his priority was to give a 'healing touch' to the situation and minimise people's sufferings. The administration, Sayeed said, has been asked 'to present a humane face'.
"Alongside I would request the Centre to initiate a dialogue with the elected representatives and others in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
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