| Unwilling to contest, Omar wants colleagues to fight all elections | | Auron Ko Nasihath! | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 9: Even as former Chief Minister and National Conference, Vice-President, Omar Abdullah has pledged not to contest elections till statehood is restored, he wants his party leaders to contest “all the upcoming polls” including that of Urban Local Bodies.
Talking to reporters on August 9, Omar said: “We’ll be contesting all polls be it that of even the Panchayat.”
Omar said this while responding the queries if his party was interested in contesting the elections including that of the Assembly in the coming times.
While Omar said his party would contest “all the polls”, the party has changed its stand since the last ULB elections when the party had formally boycotted the elections but allegedly fielded proxy candidates.
Observers said what is the logic that if Omar says he won’t contest elections himself, how can he ask his colleagues to jump into the fray.
“If the Abdullah family scion believes that it wont be fair for him to contest the Assembly polls unless statehood is restored, how can he ask all others in his party to contest every polls,” said a political observer.
The National Conference is long being accused of “double speak on the issue of elections.”
In November 2022, the NC had reiterated that Omar Abdullah, will not contest any upcoming election while J-K remains a Union Territory even as his party that time appointed heads of the 46 Assembly constituencies of Kashmir, seen as a step towards preparation for the polls awaited since 2018.
Earlier, in 2020, Omar had himself said he won’t contest polls unless the statehood is restored in Jammu and Kashmir as the NC believes that J&K has been downgraded by the August 5, 2019 decision.
So, if elections are not good for Omar how are they supposed to be good for his party colleagues? |
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