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J&K assembly dissolved, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are rivals again
Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said the National Conference, PDP and Congress would not fight the elections together and the support to Mehbooba Mufti ‘was to protect the state from the current mess’.
Jammu and Kashmir’s ‘grand alliance’ to install a PDP-led coalition government was designed to “save” the state and does not imply that the three parties — the National Conference, Congress and the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP — would jointly contest the next election, NC leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah said.
Addressing a press conference, Omar said, “Nobody ever suggested that we would be fighting polls together. This arrangement was to protect Jammu and Kashmir from the current mess. I don’t believe that NC, PDP and Congress fighting elections together will in any way benefit J&K because legitimate opposition voices are essential.”
He clarified that till the point the Governor dissolved the assembly, his party had not given a letter of support to the PDP and said that even if they would have given such a letter, it would only have been to form an immediate government and that it was not a permanent arrangement.
“We don’t want to create a situation like 1987 where all political parties in the Valley come together and the only space that remains is for fringe. As I said to Mehbooba Mufti ji on Twitter yesterday, we have to fight another day, good luck to her, good luck to us,” Omar Abdullah said.
When asked if the National Conference would be taking any legal action against the dissolution of the state assembly, Omar Abdullah said that there was no case for his party.
“Legally, we don’t have a case to make. As I don’t have a document on which to claim Governor ignored what we had to say. My conversation was with PDP. It’s for PDP to decide whether it wants to take legal recourse. I didn’t provide documentary support,” he said.
Earlier, Omar Abdullah had got into a Twitter spat with BJP’s general secretary Ram Madhav who had alleged that both PDP and NC had been functioning at Pakistan’s behest. However, when Omar challenged him to prove his allegation, Madhav was forced to step back. But Omar did persisted with his challenge.
“No, misplaced attempts at humour won’t work. You HAVE claimed my party has been acting at the behest of Pakistan. I dare you to prove it! Place the evidence of your allegation of NC boycott of ULB polls at Pak behest in public domain. It’s an open challenge to you & your Govt,” he tweeted.
