Vice Chairman of the National Conference Omar Abdullah (File photo: PTI)
North Carolina Vice President Omar Abdullah on Sunday alleged that the PDP has copied his party’s manifesto and asked the Mehbooba Mufti-led party not to field candidates against North Carolina Congress nominees for the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir as their agenda is the same.
Abdullah’s remarks came a day after Mehbooba said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would fully support the Congress-National Conference (NC) alliance and leave all seats in the elections to the coalition if it accepted her party’s agenda.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister addressed the North Carolina workers in Ganderbal district of central Kashmir, where activist Sayim Mustafa had joined the party.
Abdullah said the NC has prepared a comprehensive manifesto for the elections, which has been copied by other parties.
“We have not left anything out in 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 free units of electricity when power comes and “they (the PDP) have also said they will provide 200 units”.
“We said we would provide one lakh government jobs in the first year, they have put that in their manifesto too. We have talked about reopening (cross-LoC) routes, that is also in their manifesto. We have talked about keeping the doors of dialogue open and they have said that too. Almost everything that my colleagues have put in our manifesto, they have put in it too,” he said.
Abdullah said that over the PDP’s offer, there was not much difference between the NC and PDP’s agenda.
“They (PDP) said that if the NC-Congress alliance accepts their agenda, they will not nominate candidates. You have put our entire agenda in your manifesto. You have already accepted our agenda and now there is not much difference between your agenda and ours. Then don’t nominate candidates and come, we will build a better future for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Before his speech, NC leaders asked Abdullah to reconsider his decision not to contest the elections. Party workers chanted slogans asking him to contest the elections from Ganderbal, the Abdullahs’ family stronghold.
However, Abdullah said he doesn’t know what the future holds.
“This is my first campaign rally after the announcement of the elections. It was supposed to be in the constituencies that will go to polls in the first phase in south Kashmir. This could be a sign,” he said.
“I have not come to take away or give mandate to anyone, the decision lies with the party and the party president. But I will say this: we will not take any decision without consulting the party workers,” he added, regretting the decision to give mandate to former MLA Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar in 2014.
Last year, Jabbar was banned from the NC for six years for his participation in anti-party activities.
Abdullah said that he has always tried to serve the people of Ganderbal in different ways.
“You people gave me a lot of respect and love. I cannot forget that you sent me to parliament three times. You made me serve as MLA for six years. If I had listened to you in 2014, I would have been your MLA till 2018 even if I was in opposition. Now only God knows what will happen in the future. But we have to work hard,” he said.
Abdullah asked his party members to be careful during the elections.
“Money will be distributed like water in this election. Some agencies will distribute money, but you have to be careful with the people who join us but work against us,” he said.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Aug 26, 2024 | 12:43 PM IST