Omar Abdullah says he 'would have never joined INDIA' in a jibe at Mehbooba Mufti's PDP

Omar Abdullah said a No. 3 party (Mehbooba Mufti's PDP) has no right to ask for a seat.

Former J&K chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday said he would have never joined the Congress-led opposition alliance INDIA bloc if he knew that he would have to weaken his own party for another member (Mehbooba Mufti's PDP) of the alliance, the party that came at No. 3 in the last election. "I have already told you that the party that stands on number 3 has no right to ask for a seat. How many people are there with PDP today who brought them to the third place? If I had been told before joining INDIA alliance that we would have to weaken ourselves for another member of the alliance, then I would have never joined the INDIA alliance.." Omar Abdullah said in a major blow to the seat-sharing talks that are going on in different states.

It's Omar Abdullah versus Mehbooba Mufti in J&K before Congress finalises seat-sharing talks in the Valley for 2024 Lok Sabha election.

This is not the first time that the National Conference hinted at the roadblocks for the alliance in J&K. Omar Abdullah's father and party chief Farooq Abdullah earlier announced that his party would go solo in the election. Omar Abdullah at that time clarified that the party was part of the INDIA bloc and there had been no crack.

But a month and many meetings later, the cracks are too wide to hide as the National Conference and PDP -- both in the INDIA bloc -- are far from being on the same page.

What happened in the 2019 Lok Sabha election?

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP won Ladakh, Udhampur Jammu and the National Conference won Baramulla, Srinagar and Anantnag. The PDP contested all six seats but didn't win any with a vote share of less than four percent. Going by the voteshare, BJP stood 1st, Congress 2nd, National Conference third, and PDP 4th. The Congress did not win any seats either.

Omar Abdullah does not want to compromise the Anantnag seat for the PDP and said his party would leave the seat only if Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi were contesting from them -- not for Mehbooba Mufti's party.