Politics

No door, window or even a crack open for NDA: Omar

Why Abdullah's not on the same page regarding the seat-sharing formula with the I.N.D.I. Alliance

February 16, 2024

Farooq says ready to go ‘solo’ in the LS polls

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference President Dr. Farooq Abdullah Thursday triggered a political storm by declaring that his party would go ‘solo‘ in the Lok Sabha polls in the absence of seat-sharing talks within the I.N.D.I Alliance.

Dr. Abdullah made this statement in the presence of senior party leaders Mohd Shafi Uri and Nasir Sogami while interacting with the media at the party headquarters in Srinagar.

Dr Abdullah was asked a specific question by the media to comment on the status of seat-sharing talks.

In response, Dr. Farooq Abdullah said, “As far as seat sharing is concerned, I want to make it clear that the National Conference will contest elections on its strength. There are no two opinions about it. There should be no questions on this anymore”.

Omar slams media for distorting Abdullah’s statements, saying we are with I.N.D.I. Alliance

As the news made headlines and started trending on various social media platforms former Chief Minister and party Vice President Omar Abdullah intervened and blamed a section of the media for broadcasting the statements of Dr. Abdullah out of context by way of distorting the original statements.

Meanwhile, to set the record straight Omar launched a damage control exercise and himself addressed a separate press conference at his residence. This time Omar was flanked by his close aide and Chief spokesman Tanvir Sadiq and Dr. Farooq Abdullah.

To start with Omar clarified that the National Conference continues to remain a member of the I.N.D.I. Alliance. Omar said, “Our commitment to the I.N.D.I. Alliance remains even though founding members of the alliance have left in recent weeks“. He said, “We are not amongst those who are leaving. We will continue our discussions with the Congress party and we hope to arrive at some seat-sharing understanding”.

In the same vein, Omar also claimed no formal talks have taken place with the Congress party on the seat-sharing formula so far. Informally some dialogue has taken place and there is scope for further discussion.

Omar said if the bigger objective is to win seats back from the BJP then the National Conference is ready to enter into seat sharing with the Congress on three Lok Sabha seats. He said the I.N.D.I. Alliance already has three seats and the talks are going to take place for three seats held by the BJP.

No door, window, or even a crack open for NDA: Omar

Referring to the media reports that claimed NC may rejoin the NDA Omar said, “As far as the NDA is concerned I want to make a categorical statement that “No door, no window, and not even a crack is open for the NDA.”

Our entire objective of fighting the Parliamentary elections first is to get seats back from the BJP. As and when Assembly elections are announced our objective will be to come back with a sizable number so that we can start to undo the damage that the BJP has done to Jammu and Kashmir since 2019.

To undo the damage we cannot be a part of the NDA and our entire campaign at that time will be to target the BJP for everything they have done to Jammu and Kashmir”.

During his interaction, Dr. Farooq Abdullah also welcomed the forthcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu and Kashmir next week. “The prime minister is coming, it is a good thing. He is going to announce some projects”.

On the other hand, Omar said it has been 10 years since Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were held and said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was so keen on “one nation, one election”, he should start it from the Union territory.

The National Conference has been pitching for early conduct of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The prime minister has made the process of ‘one nation, one election’ a personal challenge. It is believed that the PM wants ‘one nation, one election’ to be implemented in the country. If that is the case, Modiji should start from Jammu and Kashmir. It has been 10 years since we saw an (assembly) election. How long will he make us wait?” Abdullah asked. He was responding to a question from reporters on the likely visit of the prime minister to Jammu next week.

“It is good that he is coming. We will get to hear from him how much development has taken place since 2019, and which projects have come up as we cannot see any major projects.

“And we would like to hear when elections will be held in Jammu and Kashmir… We would also like to hear from the PM as to how that Centre is going to act on the Supreme Court directions on holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30,” he said.

Asked about the charge that the government was using the Enforcement Directorate against opposition leaders ahead of elections, Abdullah said the process has never stopped.
“Before the elections, during the elections, and after the elections, this (use of ED) process has not stopped. If this is the price we have to pay for opposing the BJP, we will pay it from time to time,” he said.

“We have said it before…we will cooperate with them (probe agencies) as we are not trying to hide anything. We have appeared before them in the past, we will appear again when asked to,” he added.

Abdullah said he was not sure about the tactics that the BJP will adopt in the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The way they have treated Jammu and Kashmir after 2019, forget about winning three seats in Kashmir, they cannot win Udhampur and Jammu seats without using Modi and Mandir.

“To win Jammu and Udhampur seats, they will have to use the three Ms — Modi, Mandir and Money. If they were confident of winning all five Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, they would have held the Assembly elections,” he said.

Abdullah said the BJP either does not hold elections or resorts to malpractice wherever they cannot win an election.

“They knew that they could not win the Mumbai Municipal elections. So, the polls have not been held for the past three years. Chandigarh they could not win, there was daylight robbery. Even the Supreme Court said democracy has been looted,” he added.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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