Now, BJP won’t have courage to ‘allow’ assembly polls in J&K: Omar after K’taka poll results

Srinagar, May 13 (PTI) National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday said there is “no way” the BJP will have the courage to “allow” assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir after its performance in the Karnataka polls.

The Congress, which has won 74 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka so far and is leading in 62, is striding towards victory, while the BJP has won 34 and is ahead in 30, according to the latest trends on the Election Commission website.

“Now there is no way BJP will have the courage to allow assembly elections to take place in Jammu and Kashmir any time soon #KarnatakaElectionResults,” Abdullah, the vice president of the NC, said in a tweet.

Non-BJP parties, including NC, PDP and Congress, in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding assembly elections in the Union Territory. The last assembly polls in the erstwhile state took place in 2014.

In 2018, the then Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the assembly after the BJP withdrew support to the Mehbooba Mufti led PDP-BJP alliance. Jammu and Kashmir was put under the Central rule and in 2019, it was divided into Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.