Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday urged the Congress to justify its leadership role in the Opposition INDIA bloc “instead of taking it for granted”, PTI reported.
Abdullah, whose National Conference is a part of the INDIA bloc at the national level, made the remarks amid increased discussions within the alliance about its leadership.
In an interview to PTI, Abdullah said that the Congress was the “natural” leader of the alliance “by virtue of being the single largest party in Parliament and also having the Leader of Opposition in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha”.
He added that the Congress also had a “pan-India footprint” that no other party from the alliance could lay claim to.
“Yet there is a sense of disquiet among some of the allies because they feel the Congress is not doing enough to justify it or to earn it or to keep it,” Abdullah told PTI. “That’s something the Congress might wish to consider.”
The chief minister also said that there was a need for a sustained dialogue among members of the Opposition alliance beyond the electoral cycle.
“Our existence can’t just be about six months before Parliament elections,” he said. “The last time we met was when the Lok Sabha results [June 4] had just come out. There has been no formal or informal sort of work that has been done for the INDIA bloc.”
The interview came two months after the National Conference-Congress alliance won the Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, and Abdullah became the chief minister.
The elections were the first in Jammu and Kashmir in 10 years, and the first since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019. Article 370 gave special status to the erstwhile state.
The Centre in August 2019 also bifurcated the state into two Union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Since then, the Union territory has been administered by the lieutenant governor, on behalf of the president.
His remarks came days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on December 6 indicated that she was willing to lead the INDIA bloc if given the opportunity. The Trinamool Congress chief said that she could handle the dual responsibilities of being the chief minister and leading the bloc.
“I had formed the INDIA bloc, now it is up to those leading the front to manage it,” she had said. “If they can’t run the show, what can I do? I would just say that everyone needs to be taken along.”
A day later, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Sharad Pawar said that Banerjee was capable of leading the coalition.
“The elected leaders she sent to Parliament are responsible, dutiful and well-aware people,” he said. “Therefore, she has the right to say so.”
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut MP had also said that his party wants Banerjee to be a “major partner” in the INDIA bloc.
“Whether it is Mamata Banerjee, [Aam Aadmi Party chief] Arvind Kejriwal, or Shiv Sena, we are all together,” Raut said. “We will soon go to talk to Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata.”
The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance is an Opposition bloc of several parties formed in July 2023 to put a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The alliance won 234 seats in this year’s Lok Sabha election. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance won the election, but secured a narrower majority than predicted by most pollsters.
The coalition won the Jharkhand Assembly election in November. However, in recent months, the coalition suffered setbacks in the form of defeats in the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly polls.
Apart from electoral defeats, the bloc has also seen tensions on other fronts in recent days.
In Maharashtra, the Samajwadi Party on December 7 announced that it was withdrawing from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, objecting to a newspaper advertisement published by the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) praising the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
On December 1, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal said that his outfit would not ally with any other party during the upcoming Delhi polls.
Abdullah on EVMs
On Friday, Abdullah also dismissed the Congress’ repeated allegations regarding the manipulation of Electronic Voting Machines during elections.
“When you get a hundred plus members of Parliament using the same EVMs [Electronic Voting Machines], and you celebrate that as sort of a victory for your party, you can’t then a few months later turn around and say...we don’t like these EVMs because now the election results aren’t going the way we would like them to,” Abdullah told PTI.
Responding to a question about whether the Congress would get a ministerial berth in Jammu and Kashmir, Abdullah said that his government was limited to having nine ministers as it was a Union territory. “I was not in a position to offer the Congress more than we did offer them,” he said.
“They’ve [Congress] made it very clear that so long as Jammu and Kashmir remains a UT [Union territory, they’ll stay out,” PTI quoted Abdullah as saying. “Once statehood is restored, then that will change.”
He also urged the Congress to keep its promise and help restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood.
Abdullah said that he hoped that the party would talk about statehood for Jammu and Kashmir once it was done “fighting in Parliament for other things”.
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