Samba/Jammu: National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah said on Sunday that his party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls was “spectacular”, and added that trends suggest it will form the next government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Abdullah said the BJP has not “learnt any lessons” from the Lok Sabha election results, adding that it has not fulfilled its promises on development, creating jobs and curbing terrorism despite being in power over the last 10 years.
“The BJP which was talking of 400 and 370 seats has stopped at 240 (in the Lok Sabha polls). They were in power for 10 years and the result showed that the people are not satisfied with them and were looking for change,” Abdullah told a public rally at Gurha Slathia in Samba district.
This was his first rally in Jammu region after the parliamentary elections, in which he lost to jailed leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias “Engineer Rashid” from Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency by a huge margin of over two lakh votes.
“The Lok Sabha elections showed us both our power and weakness. Given the result trends, if any party is going to form the government (in J&K), it will be NC… God willing, when the assembly polls are over by September or October, you will see our party in power,” he said.
The NC leader said the performance of his party was “spectacular” despite not fielding its own candidates from Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats where it supported the Congress, its INDIA bloc ally.
The result in Baramulla was different because a “strange wind was blowing there”, he said.
He said BJP’s performance even in Jammu and Udhampur was well beyond its expectations as, compared to previous years, the margin of votes dropped from over 3.5 lakh votes to over 1.5 lakh votes.
“What happened to these two lakh voters… They are in power (for the third term) because of the support of some parties from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. People are disappointed and angry with them,” the NC leader said.
“The youth in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and Uttrakhand give the highest number of new soldiers but the Agniveer scheme has not gone down well with them. As a result, BJP lost the highest vote share from these places,” Abdullah said.
Gurha Slathia, he said, is a sacred land where each family has one or more members serving the armed forces or paramilitary forces to safeguard the country and keep the tricolour flying high.
“With great regret, I am saying that the area has been ignored as a result of which the youth are left disappointed which is evident from their faces. We have respected your mandate in the past and I promise to carry forward the incomplete developmental works once our government comes to power,” the former CM said.
Continuing his tirade against the BJP, he said the people are feeling deceived by the party which made tall promises on August 5, 2019 — the day Article 370 was abrogated and the erstwhile state of J&K was bifurcated into two Union territories.
“You were saying the flag with plough is a hindrance in employment generation. After five years, we are forced to ask where those job opportunities have gone as J&K is heading the list of regions in the country with the highest unemployment rate,” Abdullah said.
Flags of the erstwhile state of J&K and the National Conference have a plough symbol.
Referring to the under-construction Katra-Delhi Expressway, he said not a single contractor or engineer from J&K got work under the project.
“The officers are coming from outside and they are least bothered about the locals,” he said, promising to regularise all the daily wagers after the formation of his party’s government.
As the dates for assembly elections draw closer, some people will try to divide the state on the basis of religion and region, and make false promises, Abdullah said.
“You ask them that you have been in power for the past 10 years and what has improved during this period. The electricity is nowhere but every now and then metres are changed. Inflation has skyrocketed, no work done on the ground, jobs nowhere and contracts going to outsiders,” he said.
The NC leader asked people to vote wisely in the coming assembly elections so that they get answers to all of their queries in a peaceful manner.
Abdullah added that every attempt was made to sabotage this rally but “the ordinary workers of the party showed them that not everyone is not selfish.”
While he did not name his former party leaders, the remark was seen to be an indirect jab at former minister S S Slathia and ex-MLA Devender Singh Rana who switched from the NC to BJP in October 2021.
