While speaking to reporters here, Mr. Abdullah said, “There is a need to make the I.N.D.I.A. bloc stronger so that the country is saved from the disaster the BJP has done in the last ten years. If that doesn’t happen, we would be only pushing the nation in more trouble”.
Asked about the outcome of the NC’s talks within other I.N.D.I.A. partners on seat-sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the NC president said, “We’re in constant touch with the Congress party and a decision on seat-sharing will come to the fore in coming days”. He added, “Omar (Abdullah) Sahib is talking with them and hopefully a decision on seat sharing will come out in the coming days. As said, it is imperative to make the I.N.D.I.A. alliance strong. Being a part of the country, we must make this alliance powerful.”
When asked about some of the prominent NC activists having joined the BJP in the past couple of weeks, the SeniorAbdullah said, “People will come and go. It routinely happens in the electoral process…some individuals may join the BJP while others may leave it. Such movements will not significantly impact the NC.”
Omar Abdullah who is the vice president of the NC had earlier said that he will hold a second round of discussions on the seat-sharing issue with the Congress next week as the two parties could not reach an understanding in the earlier round of talks held a week ago.
“There has been one round of discussion in New Delhi. There were certain proposals put forward by the Congress which required to be discussed within the NC party. One of the proposals that they had has not found acceptance from the NC senior leadership that is there. So, we will go back. We will have a second round of discussion,” he told PTI Videos.
The former chief minister has been of the view that an all-out effort should be made by the I.N.D.I.A. bloc to wrest the Lok Sabha seats of Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh from the BJP. The three remaining seats of erstwhile state of J&K viz Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla were bagged by the NC in the 2019 elections and Mr. Omar Abdullah has been insisting that these seats should be left for the NC to recontest on and that the fight should be to take those seats back which are with the BJP. However, the Congress differs with him and has been in favour of seat-sharing agreement among all the constituents of the I.N.D.I.A. on all the six seats J&K and Ladakh, the party sources said.
