Srinagar, Oct 24: Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Friday raised questions over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) securing one Rajya Sabha seat from Jammu and Kashmir, despite NC winning three of the four seats in the elections.
Posting on X, Omar Abdullah said that all NC votes “remained intact across the four elections,” as confirmed by the party’s election agent who monitored the polling slips. He questioned where the BJP’s extra votes came from and why some MLAs apparently invalidated their votes by marking incorrect preference numbers.
“Who were the MLAs who deliberately invalidated their votes while voting? Do they have the guts to put their hands up and own up to helping the BJP after promising us their votes? What pressure or inducement helped them make this choice? Let’s see if any of the BJP’s secret team own up to selling their souls!” he wrote.
Omar’s comments came after the Rajya Sabha elections, where the NC’s Choudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Sajjad Kichloo, and Gurwinder Singh Oberoi were declared winners, while BJP’s Sat Sharma secured the fourth seat. The NC had expected to win all four seats based on party strength and allied support in the Legislative Assembly.
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The Chief Minister’s remarks point to internal concerns within the NC regarding unexpected voting patterns that prevented the party from securing all seats, despite a majority of non-BJP MLAs in the Assembly.
The Rajya Sabha elections marked the first time members were elected from Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, with voting conducted earlier at the Legislative Assembly complex in Srinagar.(KNS)
