Former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that that political parties of the territory had conveyed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that if elections are to be held then it’s statehood should be restored first and any other timeline would not be acceptable. “Azad sa’ab (Ghulam Nabi Azad) had spoken on behalf of all of us that we don’t accept this timeline -we don’t accept delimitation, election, statehood, we want delimitation, statehood and then election. If you want to hold polls, you’ll have to restore statehood first,” Abdullah said.
After a three-hour long all-party meeting on Thursday, between Jammu and Kashmir leaders led by PM Modi, opposition parties have demanded for the restoration of statehood first otherwise they won’t contest polls.
Abdullah stated that this is a demand of all the political parties in J&K, “not only Mehbooba Mufti but Farooq sa’ab also said that it took 70 years for BJP to succeed in their agenda of abrogation of Article 370. We won’t back off from our mission, even if it takes us 70 weeks or 70 months or more time,” he added.
The former CM further noted that there was no fresh approach to the National Conference from the Delimitation Commission.
Abdullah alleged that they were not called at the meeting as an alliance because if that was the case, then only one person from the alliance would have been invited. Adding he said they did not say anything at the meet that was outside agenda of Gupkar Alliance.
While addressing the joint press conference the Chief of National Conference, Farooq Abdullah said that in the meeting with PM Modi other parties have placed their affairs in front of him. “Meeting with PM Narendra Modi was good. Parties have put their state of affairs in front of him. It was the first step from his side that how can we build better circumstances in J&K and start a political process,” he said.
Since 5 August 2019, this meeting was the first high-level interaction between the Central government and political leaders from Kashmir, when the Centre scrapped the special status of J&K and the state was bifurcated into two union territories.
After the meeting, National Conference and People’s Democratic Party have raised concern over the Centre’s will to restore statehood to J&K. While Mehbooba Mufti said that her party won’t take part in polls if the polls are held before the statehood of J&K is given back, Omar Abdullah on Friday said that it is foolish to hope the restoration of statehood from the BJP government.
