PDP may not field candidates against National Conference: Omar Abdullah

Anantnag, Apr 2: Former Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah today said PDP may not field its candidates against National Conference in Lok Sabha elections.

He was talking to media persons in Pahalgam. Omar said that both the NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah and the PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti are part of the I.N.D.I.A bloc and both the leaders recently shared stage in Delhi. “Neither of us is attempting to break the alliance, ”he said.

Responding to a question regarding whether the BJP might benefit from a vote split between NC and the PDP, Omar said that the PDP has never indicated to field its candidates. “Instead of pitting us against each other, the media should expose the proxies of BJP,”the former chief minister said. He said that the present Lok Sabha seat sharing arrangement is in line with the DDC election formula.

Omar criticised the current dispensation for targeting the leaders of opposition parties. Terming the recent arrest of Delhi Chief Arvind Kejriwal as a dangerous threat to democracy, Omar said that the nation has to endure the repercussions of such actions for an extended period.

“We hope that the Supreme Court and the Election Commission do not overlook it and refrain the government from using the agencies against the opposition parties during the elections,”the NC leader said.

Earlier addressing a public rally, Omar said that what was done to J&K on August 5, 2019 is still etched on their memory. “ On that day our constitution, rights and identity were snatched,” he said. He added that the Article 370 was wrongly attributed to all the challenges confronting the region.

“Be it militancy, unemployment, corruption or low development, the Article 370 was held responsible for everything,” he said.

Omar added that its removal was projected as a panacea for everything. “Now, even after more than four years since its revocation, we want to ask them about the issues they have addressed, ” said Omar.

Refereeing to the issues confronting the common people , Omar criticised the current dispensation for its failure to provide the youth with employment opportunities.“The recruitment lists were scarped following the emergence of schemes,” he said. He added that the power scenario in the region has gone downhill with people experiencing protracted outages.

“Our contractors, employees and bureaucracy have been brought from the outside the region,” the NC leader said. He said that the local contractors are without payments for the months altogether

Mian Altaf Ahmad , the party’s candidate for the Anantnag- Rajouri seat in his address castigated the BJP government for depriving the people of J&K of elections for the last five years.

“They thrusted their own authority on us to snatch our identity, land and employment,” he said. Altaf said that there is now an opportunity for the people to send out a message through their votes that they have not accepted the decision taken on August 5.

He said that the NC is the only party that could fight for the rights of the people of J&K.