Omar Abdullah
SRINAGAR: Political tempers are running high in Kashmir Valley after BJP won one of the four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K with support from four legislators outside the party on Friday. The National Conference (NC) leadership exonerated its legislators and allies of cross-voting charges, although party president Farooq Abdullah created a flutter by revealing that BJP had approached them before the polls.Chief minister Omar Abdullah said NC could not manage a clean sweep as it was betrayed, but he refused to disclose the names of those who cross-voted.“One shouldn’t have any complaints with a 3-1 score. We tried for a 4-nil victory, but we were ditched at the last moment by some people,” Omar said on Saturday.“Everyone knows the names of those who betrayed us and voted for BJP, I don’t want to repeat them. But, their act is regrettable,” Omar said, adding it was not appropriate to reveal the names.Giving a clean chit to his party members, the CM said, “I am satisfied that not a single NC vote went elsewhere. All NC legislators showed their polling slips to their party agent.”Omar thanked Congress and “some other colleagues” for their support, but did not name Membooba Mufti-led PDP, thus keep it in the circle of doubt. He also accused People’s Conference (PC) neta Sajad Lone of helping BJP by abstaining from voting, and “now lecturing us like a professor”. The retort came after Lone alleged that “all the cross-voting was done by NC”. “Omar Abdullah is the biggest supporter of BJP, bigger than their own leaders. The Rajya Sabha polls were a fixed match between BJP and NC. It was pre-decided that NC would take three seats and BJP one,” the PC chief told reporters.BJP on Friday sprang a surprise in J&K’s first RS elections since the abrogation of Article 370, winning a seat with 32 votes — four more than its strength of 28 in the assembly.Farooq added more spice to the political debate, claiming that BJP had approached NC before the polls. Addressing a presser alongside the elected NC candidates, he said: “People will say whatever they have to say, but we didn’t gift any seat to BJP. They came to us ahead of the polls asking us for one seat. We refused and decided to fight it out.”Referring to Farooq’s statement, Lone said it was an admission that BJP and NC remained in touch. “That means a dialogue mechanism exists between the two parties. That means they had discussions about Rajya Sabha (polls)… Isn’t that what we have been saying all along — fixed match,” he said.Jailed AAP legislator Mehraj Malik issued a statement saying he voted for NC in “the larger interests of J&K” despite no one from the party approaching him, but was “now being questioned by some of their leaders”. NC spokesperson Ifra Jasn had accused the Doda MLA of voting for BJP.
