Excelsior Correspondent/PTI
JAMMU, July 2: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said he would retire from politics if BJP gets a majority in Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The day BJP gets majority in Jammu and Kashmir (Assembly elections), I will take retirement from active politics and go into hibernation,” Omar told reporters in Doda district.
He was responding queries on BJP’s mission of getting 44+ seats in the State Assembly elections which is expected to be held by year end.
“I do not want to see that day nor will that day come in the future,” Omar said.
In reply to a question on fighting the polls without ally Congress, he said, “No such decision has been taken as yet. But the truth is that in both the parties, voices are raising the pitch that elections should be fought separately.”
“In my party, there are most of the people who do not want that elections should be fought in alliance with Congress. But the final decision would be taken by Dr Farooq Abdullah (president of the party). But I do not feel that he will be able to reject the demand of the party workers,” he said.
On the meeting between Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP patron Mufti Mohmmed Sayeed in Srinagar, Omar said, “Ask this question to Azad or Mufti. But my take is that if there is meeting to be held, why to go for secret meeting? Just go and hold an open meeting.”
“The day I will have to hold meeting with Mufti I will go and meet him in his residence publicly. Secret meeting does not give a good signal (within the coalition Government),” he said.
The NC leader also hit out at Congress for breaking the coalition dharma by holding meetings in his party’s areas.
On the price rise issue, the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said you can promise good days “only when you are in command of things and situations”.
“You can make a promise only if there is control in your hands. The present Government at the Centre has understood this fast that there are several things that will happen whose control is not in their hands.”
“For example, whatever is happening in Iraq has impact on the prices of the petrol. It is imminent that people would be annoyed. But it is not in the control of the Government. They had promised good days ahead. But due to the poor monsoon, bad days are going to come in future.”
“You can talk of good days only when you are in command of things and situation,” Omar said.
In Srinagar, Omar today said that the Centre should compensate the losses the Jammu and Kashmir suffers for being the frontline State in the battle against militancy.
Omar while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function at SKICC Srinagar said that he has no wish list for the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the State, but would only demand what was the right of its people.
“We should get our share of the electricity. We should get help in the funding by the Planning Commission. We should also get help for the loss we undertake by being at the frontier of the battle against militancy in the State. I am not asking for anything more than that,” Chief Minister said.
Omar said: “I do not have a wish list. I am not going to him with a wish list. Whatever is the right of the State, we should get that and we want to have that. He is coming here for the two functions related to the Central Government and nothing more than that.”
Chief Minister said that his party has not taken any decision on pre-poll alliance with Congress yet. “We have not decided whether to fight in an alliance or not. I have been reiterating it that in both the parties there are many voices which are not in favour of an alliance, but both the parties have left the decision on their leadership”, he said.
“NC’s working committee has passed a resolution and put the responsibility on its president Farooq Abdullah. He will decide whether it will be in favour of the party to have an alliance or not. For that, Farooq sahib, will consult his colleagues and decide. Same ways, the Congress will do,” Omar said.
On a question about delay in announcing mandates by the party, Chief Minister said: “This is not a race. The race is for winning the elections. If by announcing the mandates, elections would have been won, then I would have announced them six years before. It does not make a big difference. When we will be ready with the mandates, we will tell you.”
Omar said that he is ready for the elections in the State. “My confidence was never low. I have taken blows sometimes, but those blows also make you more confident and I am fully ready for the forthcoming test,” he said.
On newspaper reports about the party’s decision to join hands with its coalition partner Congress, Omar said: “If I take as a truth whatever comes in newspapers, this world would be a different kind. I came to understand it soon that whatever I read in papers, very less of that is based on reality.”
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