RS poll: Sajad Lone claims NC ‘gifted’ 7 votes to BJP in ‘fixed match’

Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference (PC) president and Handwara MLA Sajad Lone on Saturday alleged that the results of the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir exposed a “pre-arranged understanding” between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the National Conference (NC), terming the outcome a “fixed match.”

Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Lone said the election results had proven beyond doubt that the NC and BJP had entered into a mutual understanding. “Debates may have winners and losers, but mathematics is absolute. Two plus two always equals four. Yesterday, it was proven beyond doubt that there was a fixed arrangement between BJP and NC: ‘You take one, we take the other,’” Lone said.

Referring to Friday’s Rajya Sabha polls, in which the NC won three seats and the BJP secured one, Lone said the third candidate required 28.1 votes to win.

“Anyone with basic mathematical understanding knows that 29 votes were enough. Yet, 31 votes were cast by NC members, along with one rejected vote from an NC MLA, ensuring a result that favoured the BJP candidate. This surplus ensured that the fourth candidate had no chance, even without cross-voting,” he claimed.

Lone said he was “grateful” that he chose to abstain from voting, arguing that his participation would have led to misplaced accusations. “Had I voted, all fingers would have been pointed at me. The truth is unambiguous — NC orchestrated the Rajya Sabha election outcome to help the BJP,” he alleged.

The PC chief also accused the NC of “manipulating” the seat-sharing understanding with the Congress Party.

“Seats were never genuinely offered to Congress. Omar Abdullah publicly said, ‘We have offered them seat number four, let them contest,’ but it was a setup for their defeat. Congress could have secured only around 21 votes. We had already said that if Congress contested seat number three, we would have supported them — not out of political alignment, but because they are a national party that could have raised Kashmir issues more effectively,” Lone said.

Commenting on reports of cross-voting, Lone alleged that NC legislators deliberately ensured BJP’s victory. “NC members effectively gifted votes to BJP. The rejected votes were deliberate, not accidental. It was a calculated, coordinated manoeuvre with Delhi, leaving no room for a fair contest,” he said.

Lone also criticised the NC for what he termed hypocrisy. “Before the elections, the NC accused everyone else of being close to the BJP. Today, they’ve been caught red-handed sitting in their lap. They wasted an entire election while pretending to fight the BJP. The truth is, while the BJP isn’t in power in J&K, its preferred party is ruling here,” Lone alleged.