Omar Abdullah, vice-president of the National Conference (File photo: PTI)
NC Vice President Omar Abdullah on Sunday claimed that the PDP had copied his party’s manifesto and asked the Mehbooba Mufti-led party not to field candidates against NC Congress nominees for the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir as their agenda is the same.
Abdullah’s comments came a day after Mehbooba said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would extend its full support to the Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance and leave all seats in the elections to the coalition if it accepts her party’s agenda.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister was addressing NC workers in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district where activist Sayim Mustafa joined the party.
Abdullah said the NC has prepared a lengthy manifesto for the assembly elections which has been copied by other parties.
“We have not left anything out of the manifesto. Today, everyone has copied our manifesto. They should have kept some differences,” he said, referring to the PDP manifesto released by Mehbooba on Saturday.
Abdullah said his party promised to provide 200 units of free electricity if the time came to restore power supply and “they (PDP) also said they would provide 200 units.”
“We said we would create 100,000 government jobs in the first year, and they also put that in their manifesto. We talked about reopening the routes (that cross the LoC), it is also in their manifesto. We talked about keeping the doors of dialogue open and they said that too. Almost everything that my colleagues put in our manifesto, they put it too,” he said.
On the PDP’s offer, Abdullah said there was not much difference between the NC’s agenda and that of the PDP.
“They (PDP) said that if the NC-Congress alliance accepts their agenda, they will not field candidates. You have included our entire agenda in your manifesto. You have already accepted our agenda and now there is not much difference between your agenda and ours. So don’t field candidates and come, we will build a better future for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Before his address, NC leaders asked Abdullah to reconsider his decision not to contest the Assembly elections. Party workers raised slogans asking him to contest the elections from Ganderbal, the Abdullah family stronghold.
Abdullah, however, said he does not know what the future holds.
“This is my first campaign rally after the announcement of the Assembly elections. It was supposed to be in the constituencies that went to polls in the first phase in south Kashmir. This may be a signal,” he said.
“I have not come to take away or give anyone a mandate, the decision is up to the party and the party president. But I will say that we will not take a decision without consulting the party workers,” he added, regretting the decision to give the mandate to former MP Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar in 2014.
Last year, the NC banned Jabbar for six years for engaging in anti-party activities.
Abdullah said he has always tried to serve the people of Ganderbal in various capacities.
“You have given me a lot of respect and affection. I cannot forget that you sent me to Parliament three times. You allowed me to serve you as an MP for six years. If I had listened to you in 2014, I would have been your MP until 2018, even if I had been in the opposition. Now only God knows what will happen in the future. But we have to work hard,” he said.
Abdullah called on his party workers to be cautious during the elections.
“In these elections, money will be distributed like water. Various agencies will distribute the money, but we must be careful with people who join our ranks but work against us,” he said.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 26, 2024 | 00:43 IS
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