BJP took to horse-trading in bid to form govt, says Omar

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 10

Former Chief Minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah on Monday accused the BJP of horse-trading in a bid to form the government before the recent dissolution of the Assembly.

He alleged that many MLAs were being blackmailed by the BJP to form the government with them. Without mentioning the names of the MLAs, he said: “Legislators were told to form the government with the BJP or face investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) or the CBI,” Omar said during a meeting of party workers here on Monday.

The BJP has ignored the aspirations of the Jammu region, he said while challenging it to announce the name of its chief ministerial candidate before the Assembly elections in the state.

Omar said the BJP had played “politics of division” by saying that the Kashmiri leaders had always ruled the state. “Despite having 26 seats, they (BJP) had offered the chair of Chief Minister to a party with only two seats in Kashmir,” he said.

“They will again do the same thing if they get seats from Jammu in the next Assembly elections. I challenge them to announce their chief ministerial candidate before the election,” he added.

He said the BJP had failed at all fronts and all their assurances to Jammu had not been fulfilled. “They assured justice to refugees, UT status for Ladakh and much more, but failed at all fronts,” he said.

While targeting the Narendra Modi government in the Centre, he said that if they could build the world’s tallest statue, they could have built a small temple as well. “But they never spoke about Ayodhya in the last four and a half years.” Omar asked his party workers to start working for the Assembly elections and refuted rumours of any pre-poll alliance. “We will not share a single seat with anyone,” he told his party workers.