As Jammu and Kashmir prepares for their first elections since 2018, National Conference vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said he is facing pressure from his party to contest the polls.
After the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading Jammu and Kashmir to a Union territory, (UT) Omar vowed not to contest polls unless statehood is restored.
“Although I don't want to fight the elections, there is pressure on me from my party, and in the next two days, I will take a decision on contesting the polls,” he said.
He said due to his father, Farooq Abdullah's old age, there is added pressure on him to contest. “The problem is that my father is aging, so if I don’t fight, he will be under pressure to do so.”
Abdullah said the discussions with the Congress on forming a political alliance have not progressed. “We were part of the INDIA alliance, and a few days back, a delegation from the Congress met me regarding holding an election together.’’
“Unfortunately, they came without instructions from the Congress high command, so we didn’t take that dialogue forward.”
However, he said they are open to further talks. “If Congress has a concrete suggestion, then we are ready to talk to them.”
He highlighted the difficulties in reconciling with parties that have been adversarial in the past, a reference to the PDP with whom the party failed to agree on a seat-sharing agreement during Lok Sabha polls.
“It will be difficult for us to consider an alliance with parties that recently fought against us and spoke ill of us,’’ he said, adding, “ The onus was on them to mend fences, but instead, they made the relationship worse.”
On the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcement of three-phase election schedule for the Union t erritory, he said it was much anticipated by the public.
“People were eagerly waiting for this announcement. Since 2018, there has been no government, and we suffered because of that,” he said.
Abdullah stressed the importance of free and fair elections and urged the ECI to ensure security to all candidates.
Abdullah expressed his suspicions regarding the massive administrative reshuffle in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the ECI’s announcement of poll dates.
“We suspect that these transfers have been made to benefit the BJP and their B and C teams.’’
“The ECI should see that transfers outside their guidelines are stopped.”
He said there is a need to reinstate security for parties opposing the BJP, which had been withdrawn in the last two years.
On alliance with other pirates, he said the NC had kept the door for an alliance open, but it was shut to some extent by them (PDP).
On the election manifesto, he said NC is prepared to release its manifesto and has no dearth of chief ministerial candidates.
“We have no shortage of CM faces,” Abdullah said, and hoped for greater public participation in the assembly than in the Lok Sabha polls.
