Several “compromises” were made to tie up with the Congress party for the upcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Friday, adding that his party “surrendered” seats to forge the alliance.
In an interview with ANI, Omar Abdullah said such adjustment has to be done in any seat-sharing agreement and having a tie-up was "too important to let five or six seats jeopardise the whole thing".
Before the alliance with Congress, NC was planning to contest on all seats, he added.
The former Jammu and Kashmir CM also took a dig at the BJP, saying a narrative was created that Article 370 was something “that Kashmiris loved and residents of Jammu region hated.”
"All alliances are a compromise. We had prepared candidates for all seats. I'm not sure whether Congress had done the same, but I'm assuming they would have done. We have obviously surrendered seats that we had people ready for, that we believed we were in a good position to at least put up a really good fight. But yes, in any seat-sharing, you have to surrender seats and we did," Omar Abdullah said.
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"Having an alliance was too important to let five or six seats jeopardise the whole thing. We could have ended up with a Madhya Pradesh-type situation where the Congress just went completely alone because they couldn't agree on six or seven seats to the Samajwadi party," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"Having an alliance was too important to let five or six seats jeopardise the whole thing. We could have ended up with a Madhya Pradesh-type situation where the Congress just went completely alone because they couldn't agree on six or seven seats to the Samajwadi party," he added.
{{/usCountry}}He further pointed out that Jammu and Kashmir needs stronger domicile laws. Abdullah said that J&K's domicile laws are weaker than that of Himachal Pradesh, and are currently the weakest in the country.
"It's a genuine fear because lands are being given away. Government lands are being given away to people who are not from here. Let me be clear, I have no problem with people coming here, but we are saying we should have first right over our own land, over our own water, over our own rivers. What is wrong in that? If you give the first right to people in other states, why not here?" he added.
However, when asked about who will be the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir if the Congress-NC alliance wins the elections, Abdullah chose not to answer.
(With inputs from ANI)