J-K Assembly Polls: ‘BJP should focus on setting its house in order; chairs were broken,’ says Omar Abdullah

National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah said that for the first time, he saw that the BJP deleted its list within 10 minutes of releasing it. The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir suggested that the saffron party should focus on setting its house in order.

“The BJP should focus on setting its house in order…For the first time, I saw that the BJP deleted its list within 10 minutes of releasing it. Today, chairs were broken in their offices,” Abdullah said.

Abdullah’s remarks came after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its first list of 44 candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir reportedly over rumblings within the party on Monday. Later, the BJP released two lists, one with 15 names and another with one candidate for the first phase of elections in the UT scheduled on September 18.

As many as 24 seats are voting in the first phase of elections. The other two rounds of voting are scheduled for September 25 and October 1. The votes will be counted on October 4.

The NC is contesting assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir in alliance with the Congress party.

Jammu and Kashmir is expected to witness multi-cornered contests on most seats. It is the first assembly poll being held since the abrogation of Article 370.

There are a total number of 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 7 seats are reserved for SCs and 9 seats are reserved for STs.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats. All the seats that PDP won came from Kashmir valley. The BJP finished second with 25 seats. All seats that the BJP won came from Jammu.

The PDP, led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, decided to form an unprecedented alliance with the BJP, a party with ideologies poles apart.

The PDP-BJP government, however, could not last the full 6-year term as BJP withdrew its support to former PDP in 2018. Since then, the erstwhile state has been under central rule.