Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday asserted that his party, the National Conference (NC), stands alone in actively confronting the BJP, while sharply criticising rivals for forging covert or outright ties with the saffron party.
Talking to reporters here, Abdullah emphatically dismissed speculation of any alliance between the NC and the BJP, and sought to draw a clear distinction between his government’s necessity for cordial ties with the Centre for effective governance and his party’s political equation with the BJP.
“The National Conference is the only party which is taking the BJP head on and nobody else is doing that,” the chief minister said, rubbishing allegations of his party entertaining a tie-up, a move he suggested others pursue “behind curtains”.
He cited an example of the upcoming assembly bypoll in Nagrota where the NC is the only party contesting the BJP candidate. “Why did the PDP not field a candidate,” he asked.
Abdullah clarified that while his administration seeks “cordial relations with the Centre so that governance is not affected”, his party’s political stance is unwavering.
“There is a huge difference in relations between governments and relations between the NC and the BJP. There is no relation between the NC and the BJP, and it will not form in future also,” he said.
He also dismissed suggestions that there was an understanding between the NC and the BJP for the election to the four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K.
While the NC won three seats, the BJP managed to bag one seat in the polling held last week.
There were newspapers screaming headlines that the outcome of the Rajya Sabha polls would be 3-1 but my party contested on all seats and made attempts to secure all the four, Abdullah said.
“You (media) had declared the outcome much before the voting began. Were you also part of the match-fixing? We still fought it out. The difficulty started with Handwara MLA sitting out. The BJP needed only 29 after that, and they had 28. One or two would have been easy for them, but I didn’t think they would get four. Now those four who sold their conscience will have to answer to their Allah or Bhagwan,” he said.
The chief minister said he would like the names of the MLAs who cross-voted or deliberately wasted their votes to come out in public.
“Four votes went in favour of the BJP, three deliberately destroyed their votes. Clearly, the BJP attempted to lure people. On what basis they were lured, only the BJP can answer,” he added.
He said his party was not among those who entered into “secret pacts”.
“If we had to do it, we would have done it openly. I did not support the Vajpayee government behind closed doors; I joined the NDA. Whether it was right or wrong, is another issue,” the chief minister said.
Responding to Handwara MLA Sajad Gani Lone’s accusation that the Rajya Sabha polls were a “fixed match”, Abdullah said he did not understand why a person would comment on an election when he was not even ready to take part.
“Let him first say what was his compulsion to help the BJP. If he did not want match fixing to take place, he should have used his vote,” he said.
Lone was an ally in the BJP-PDP government and he got his ministerial berth out of the saffron party’s quota then.
The chief minister said certain leaders, including Sajad Lone, indirectly helped the BJP during the Rajya Sabha elections by staying silent or abstaining from voting and added that the people of Handwara did not elect representatives to remain inactive or to divide their loyalty.
“The voters of Handwara deserve to know where their representative stood,” he said.
