Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said on Friday said that several “compromises” were made to tie up with the Congress for the upcoming Assembly elections as his party had to "surrender" seats to forge an alliance with the grand old party.
In an interview with ANI, the National Conference leader said 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".
"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,” ANI quoted Abdullah as saying.
It is important to note that before the alliance with Congress, the National Conference was planning to contest on all seats in the Union territory.
"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.
Taking a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Abdullah said a narrative was created that Article 370 was something “that Kashmiris loved and residents of Jammu region hated.”
Abdullah said said the BJP margins in two Lok Sabha polls in Jammu region went down in 2024 election compared to 2019.
“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 added.
The former J&K chief minister said he would reverse the decision on Dabar move at least for Jammu if the NC-Congress alliance voted 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.”
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.
Abdullah further pointed out that 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.
The NC leader skipped answering the question on who will be the Chief Minister if the NC-Congress alliance voted to power in the upcoming assembly elections.
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.
