Srinagar: BJP’s Rajya Sabha candidate Sat Sharma received a significant boost on Tuesday after People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone announced that his party would abstain from voting in the upcoming elections.
Lone made it clear that he would not support the National Conference (NC) in any of the four Jammu and Kashmir seats up for grabs in the Upper House of Parliament.
“I would rather die than vote for the National Conference. Stop dictating to us who we should or shouldn’t vote for. You cannot label us. You are not a prince,” Lone said, in a sharp dig at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
While the NC is expected to comfortably secure three of the four seats based on its strength in the J&K Assembly, BJP’s Sharma will need support from at least three non-BJP MLAs—either through abstention or votes in his favour—to clinch the fourth seat.
The BJP has so far announced only three candidates for the four Rajya Sabha positions.
Earlier, Abdullah had described the upcoming polls as a litmus test for political parties in J&K to prove whether they stood with or against the BJP.
Responding strongly, Lone said, “Today, you are the one who has to answer. Prove to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that you didn’t deny a Rajya Sabha seat to Congress on BJP’s instructions. Show that you are not sitting in BJP’s lap.”
Lone, who served as a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government between 2015 and 2018, dismissed Abdullah’s claim that abstention equated to backing the BJP. “I wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow you accuse Congress of having a pact with the BJP. Your sense of entitlement borders on lunacy,” he said.
