"Only Mehbooba Mufti can answer...": Omar Abdullah on Gupkar alliance crumbling, PDP fighting against NC-Congress alliance

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], September 6 : Slamming PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti's decision to contest against the INDIA bloc partners in the Lok Sabha polls and "not campaigning" in Jammu, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has said that they were open for seat-sharing talks in the assembly elections if she was willing to help the alliance but "it was acceptable to her".
In an interview with ANI, Omar Abdullah said Gupkar alliance never came together as an electoral alliance and that Mehbooba Mufti can only answer why it did not work.
"That's something only she can answer. I didn't ask her to put candidates up in the Parliament elections against the India bloc. That's a choice she consciously made. And she made that choice consciously after I had told the Congress party that, look, there is no scope in five (Lok Sabha) seats of which the National Conference already held three," he said.
"For any sort of seat-sharing arrangement unless Congress was willing to sacrifice one of their seats. But as long as the PDP helps the alliance, we're open to talks about seat sharing in the assembly elections. Clearly, that wasn't acceptable to her. She fielded three candidates here and did nothing to help the alliance in the two seats in Jammu," he added.
He was answering a query about Gupkar alliance not working though his and Mehbooba Mufti's views match in some respects.
The People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) also known as the 'Gupkar Alliance' included National Conference, PDP, CPI-M and a few other political parties and has been opposed to abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Sajjad Gani Lone of the Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference quit the Gupkar Alliance after District Development Council polls in 2020.
The BJP-led NDA government abrogated Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, in August 2019, months after it returned to power for second successive term.
Omar Abdullah said the Gupkar alliance is about ideology and "common fight".
"The alliance never came together as an electoral alliance. Nowhere in the Gupkar Declaration. It's about ideology, it's about a common fight. It was about a fight for bigger things which we did. Even though the PDP wasn't part of any case in the Supreme Court to overturn what was done on August 5. There was a sort of cooperation and a common fight that was waged there," he said.
Answering a query about Sajjad Lone's purported remarks about Gupkar's alliance stature having risen in the past due to constant criticism by BJP, Omar Abdullah, a former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, said a party is made by people and nothing else matters much.
"Stature is not given by, it's not a gift bestowed on anybody by the BJP or the media or anybody. You get what the people give you. Now, it's nobody's fault, least of all the BJPs or the national conferences. If anything, the BJP did him a huge favour," he said.
He said Sajjad Lone would have lost deposit in the Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla if BJP had not given him "huge favour".
"Had the BJP not transferred migrant votes to him, he would have lost his deposit in this election. He saved his deposit because the BJP engineered about 7,000 migrant votes for him, which is surprising because given his track record of being part and parcel of the whole movement that caused Kashmiri pundits to leave here right in the beginning, for them to vote for him is a huge change. In their outlook. But they did it. And clearly at the behest of the BJP," he said.
Congress and National Conference are fighting the assembly polls also in alliance. While NC will contest 51 0f 90 seats, Congress will fight 32 with two parties also agreeing to friendly contest on some seats. A few seats have been left for smaller allies.
Polling in Jammu and Kashmir will be conducted in three phases on September 18, 25, and October 1 and votes will be counted on October 8.