Srinagar: BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha polls, Sat Sharma, got an early shot in the arm as People’s Conference president Sajad Lone on Tuesday said his party will abstain from voting in the upcoming elections.
Lone also said he will not vote for the National Conference candidate in any of the four Jammu and Kashmir seats in the upper house of Parliament.
“I would rather die than vote for the National Conference. Stop dictating to us who we should vote for and who we should not. You cannot label us. You are not a prince,” Lone, referring to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, told reporters here.
While the victory of three National Conference candidates should be a foregone conclusion in view of the respective party strengths in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the BJP’s Sharma will need three more non-BJP MLAs to either abstain from voting or vote for him to win the fourth seat.
The BJP has announced only three candidates for the four RS seats.
The chief minister on Monday said the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls were a true test for political parties in Jammu and Kashmir on whether they were friends of the BJP or opponents of the saffron party.
Lone shot back at the CM, “Today you are in the dock. You have to prove to the people of J-K that you did not deny a Rajya Sabha seat to Congress on the BJP’s orders. Prove to the people of J-K that you are not sitting in BJP’s lap.” Lone was a minister from the BJP quota in the PDP-led alliance government from 2015 to 2018.
Dismissing Abdullah’s assertion that abstention would mean support for the BJP, said he would not be surprised if Abdullah accused the Congress of having a pact with the BJP. “Your sense of entitlement is synonymous with lunacy,” the People’s Conference chief added.
