“We have surrendered seats…having an alliance was too important,” Omar Abdullah on tie-up with Congress for J&K polls

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], September 6 (ANI): Noting that his party has “surrendered” seats to forge alliance with Congress for the assembly polls, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has said that 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”.

In an interview with ANI, Omar Abdullah also took a dig at BJP and said a wrong narrative was sought to be created that Article 370 was something “that Kashmiris loved and residents of Jammu region hated”.

He said National Conference was preparing to contest all seats before the seat-sharing agreement with Congress.

“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.

“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.

He said BJP margins in two Lok Sabha polls in Jammu region went down in 2024 election compared to 2019 and asked if Article 370 was a Kashmir-specific issue that Jammu was happy to see the back of, then margins of BJP should have gone up.

“This narrative was sought to be created that 370 was something that Kashmiris loved and Jammuites hated. It’s not without reason that the BJP’s vote share in Jammu shrunk drastically in this Parliament election. The margins of victory for both candidates in Jammu and Udhampur are half of what they were in the election in 2014. If 370 was a Kashmir-specific issue that Jammu was happy to see the back of, you should have seen margins in Jammu jump in favour of the BJP. But you haven’t,” he said.

He said there is “a lot of simmering anger” in Jammu and said he would reverse the decision on Dabar move at least for Jammu if the alliance comes to power.

“You basically crippled the economy of Jammu when you shut down the Darbar move. Jammu economy depended a lot on government employees coming from Kashmir in the winter. They spent a lot of money there. They hired accommodation. For six months, the place boomed. You talk about tourism. How much of that tourism actually goes to Jammu? Almost nothing. Because the train takes Yatris directly to Katra. The Yatris who land by air, come straight from the airport, get into their car, go to Katra, get into a helicopter, fly up to Mata temple, do darshan and come back. Jammu is crying for some sort of economic sustenance, which they used to get from the Darbar move, they don’t. What would you like to do differently? I would like to reverse a lot of these things that were done…such as the Darbar move to start with for Jammu at least,” he said.

The 149-year-old biannual tradition of shifting offices between summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu was ended by the Jammu and Kashmir administration in 2021. The administration had said that it has completely transitioned to an e-office where “darbar move” was no longer needed and the decision will save Rs 200 crore per year.

Omar Abdullah said Jammu and Kashmir needs stronger domicile laws.

“We need domicile laws that at least bring us at par with other parts of the country. Today we have weaker domicile laws than our own neighbour Himachal. Our domicile laws are the weakest in the country today. This is what was said when Article 370 was taken away,” he said.

“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.

Omar Abdullah skipped answering the question on who will be the Chief Minister if the NC-Congress alliance wins the elections.

“I have had my sort of fingers burnt in Baramulla (parliamentary constituency) by assuming that I know what is going to happen. I’m not making that mistake again. Which is why I have not put any number on the party winning. We want to win as many seats as possible. But I am not going to be foolish enough to put a number on it and then exceed that number.” he said.

Omar Abdullah was defeated by an independent candidate by over 1.5 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha polls.

He also talked about his focus during the campaign on local issues.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) will talk about national issues. He has representation all the way to the east and the west, all the way down to the south. Probably soon his sister will be fighting a parliamentary election from Kerala. The moment you cross into Punjab, I have no locus standi. So, I have no reason to talk about issues that go beyond Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Polling in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1. Votes will be counted on October 8.

Like the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, Congress and the National Conference are fighting the assembly polls also in alliance. While NC will contest 51 of 90 seats, Congress will fight 32 with two parties also agreeing to a friendly contest on some seats. A few seats have been left for smaller parties.