Chief minister Omar Abdullah announced the full restoration of the historic Darbar Move on the first anniversary of taking office on Thursday, offering a cautious olive branch to the Centre while also avoiding a showdown with the government over the larger goal of restoration of statehood.

Omar, who is routinely criticised by rivals for not being assertive enough with the Centre, appeared not to disappoint them as he urged people not to judge his performance based on one year in office, but after completing his full five-year term.

The National Conference had come to power by setting lofty goals, including the restoration of greater autonomy and Article 370, scrapped in 2019. The party has since been reticent about greater autonomy and rarely mentions Article 370. On Thursday, Omar said he believed restoration of statehood was a solution to all issues of Jammu and Kashmir, but appeared unwilling to put up a fight for that.

“As opposed to (it), what is the alternative to not waiting for statehood?” he said, when asked at a media conference what if the Centre did not fulfil its promise.

“All roads are open for us (but) I am not among those people who issue threats to achieve something. I am still hoping that without issuing threats, without the situation deteriorating in Jammu and Kashmir, the promise made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir will be fulfilled.”

He said it was not the time to disclose the next course of action. “If such a situation arises, we will be forced to address a media conference to make some other announcement. But as of now, there is no such situation,” he said.

While statehood seems to be nowhere in sight, Omar announced the full restoration of the Darbar Move — a 149-year-old tradition of biannual shifting of offices between summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu that was started by the erstwhile Dogra rulers.

“We had made a promise to people that we would restore Darbar Move. The cabinet has decided on restoration. The decision was sent to LG sahab. LG sahab has returned it after signing it. Today I put my signature for the full restoration of the Darbar Move. I hope the order will be issued and the old tradition of Darbar will continue,” he said.

The shifting was scrapped by lieutenent governor Manoj Sinha’s administration in 2021 on the ground that it would save money.