Omar questions PM silence on state poll

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 3

National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was avoiding talking about the Assembly elections which have not been held on the schedule for the first time in two decades.

Omar took to Twitter in response to Modi’s election speech in Rajasthan in which he had said the IPL was not held in India in 2009 and 2014 as the Congress-led Central government was “scared of terrorists”.

The NC leader said the PM should also talk about the unwillingness to hold the Assembly elections in the state. “Why is the PM talking about the IPL? His is the first government since 1996 that has been unable (or) unwilling to hold the Assembly elections in J&K on the schedule. Why doesn’t he talk about that also?” Omar said.

The delay in holding the state elections has been Omar’s recurrent theme in the recent campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls. Hehad also repeatedly posed it as a challenge for Modi to conduct the Assembly elections.

The state is without an elected government since June last year.