Talks between NC, Congress on electoral alliance about to begin: Omar Abdullah

Srinagar, Aug 19: National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah Monday said that the talks on an electoral alliance between his party and Congress for the assembly polls are about to begin.

He was addressing a press conference after releasing NC’s election manifesto. "Talks for a poll alliance with Congress are about to begin. I cannot say to what extent we will succeed since the talks have not started yet. Let the talks start then we will see to what extent we can carry those forward,” Omar said.

Asked that the new JKPCC Chief Tariq Hamid Karra has stated that his party is open for alliance with all like-minded parties including PDP, Omar said, "Congress has every right to talk to others but they cannot force us to talk to some other party, whom we do not like to talk. We will talk to those parties with whom we would like to talk. We have not yet talked to Congress. Whatever interaction has occurred that has occurred at the top level.  The top Congress leadership has not told us anything about PDP.”

To a question that there are reports that Congress may win from Jammu and NC from Kashmir and that there will be an NC-Congress coalition government after the elections, Omar said, “I do not trust these reports. Till the time of counting, there is uncertainty. A number of people among you were saying that I will win from Baramulla but that did not happen. We have prepared the manifesto and presented it before people so that they can vote for NC.”

About lessons that the National Conference learnt from recent parliamentary polls, the NC Vice President said, “The first lesson we learnt is that we do exist significantly on the ground despite the impression created for last several years by some quarters that we are irrelevant now. We also learnt that we should not take things for granted and must take things seriously till the last phase. We also learnt that sometimes the independent candidates become dangerous. We also learnt that NC workers stand by us. In Baramulla, though we lost, our traditional vote was intact. Other parties were disintegrated. A candidate who was claiming victory could save his security deposit because of the migrant votes provided to him by the BJP.”

To the question that if NC got more seats in Kashmir and BJP more in Jammu, will NC form a coalition government with the BJP, the former chief minister said, “Do not go into speculations. Wait for October 4 when the results will be declared. We do not feel that BJP is in a position to win so many seats. We won two Lok Sabha seats, lost one and did not contest on two. Our position is much better than BJP's. Why are you equating us with the BJP? There will be no need for us to go towards BJP after polls for government and we are not thinking about it. We will get enough seats to form the government.”

He refused to comment when asked whether he will himself contest the assembly polls or not.

“Today we have released the election manifesto. The day we will announce our candidates, we will talk about it,” Omar said.