Chief minister Omar Abdullah
SRINAGAR: Congress withdrew Monday from next week’s Rajya Sabha elections to four seats from J&K, accusing its partner National Conference (NC) of denying it a “safe seat” even as the governing party nominated its fourth candidate, pushing the INDIA bloc partners to the brink of a split.The strains deepened amid a welter of claims and counterclaims, with Congress accusing chief minister Omar Abdullah’s party of pushing it to contest from a “weak” fourth seat in the October 24 polls- the first RS elections in the Union territory since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra wondered if NC wished to remain part of INDIA bloc. “NC has caused great damage to the trust between the partners,” Karra said Monday. He accused NC of backtracking on its promise to offer a “secure seat” despite discussions with Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge. “We will consult the central leadership before deciding whether to participate in the voting,” Karra said.The comments raised the possibility of abstentions that could help BJP. Leader of opposition, BJP’s Sunil Sharma, predicted a win in all three seats his party is contesting. “Our win is assured,” Sharma said and claimed Congress was “denied a chance at the last moment” by NC.Omar rejected claims that Congress was offered a “weak” seat. “We believed Congress could have won that seat but they thought otherwise,” he said. NC had earlier named three candidates, Sajad Kichloo, Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan, and Shammi Oberoi. On Monday, it fielded spokesman Imran Nabi Dar as the fourth nominee.Omar stressed that the RS elections would show “who are with BJP and who are against it”. He rejected BJP’s claims of winning three seats, saying that would be possible only through horse-trading. “They (BJP) need 30 votes to win the fourth seat but have only 28. No MLA outside their own party has supported them in the past year. Anyone from non-BJP parties who abstains will make his position clear before people,” Omar said.J&K’s assembly has 90 seats but its current strength is 88. NC has 41 MLAs, Congress six, and CPI(M) one. NC also enjoys the support of five independents, giving the governing alliance a strength of 53. BJP has 28 MLAs, PDP three, Peoples Conference one and AAP one.
