Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah said the BJP cannot win a single seat without buying and selling after National Conference (NC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates filed their nominations on Monday for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for October 24 and fall vacant since February 2021.
“In terms of numbers, the BJP is not in a position to win a single seat,” Omar said in Srinagar.” It has 28 legislators and needs 30 legislators to win the fourth seat.In the last one year, apart from 28 BJP MLAs, no one has supported the BJP. If they are claiming that they are going to win three seats, they are using the strength of money, manpower and agencies. Let’s see if they win or not.”Omar said that the Rajya Sabha elections will expose the friends and opponents of the BJP among the MLAs. His reference was to 7 MLAs.
3 of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the sole legislator of the Peoples Conference, Sheikh Khurshid, an independent MLA associated with Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP), and jailed Aam Aadmi Party MLA Mehraj Malik, who will need the court’s permission to vote.
“Whoever votes for the BJP or stays away from the elections is a friend of the BJP, because three out of 4 are candidates against the BJP in elections,”he said.”
Reacting to the Congress’s refusal to contest the fourth seat proposed by the NC, Omar said the Congress “had the best opportunities, but they didn’t feel that way.”Meanwhile, politics over the Rajya Sabha elections has intensified as 6 candidates from both parties have filed their forms before the returning officer of the Election Commission of India, who is also the secretary of the Assembly. BJP president Sat Sharma and two other candidates, Ali Muhammad Mir and Rakesh Mahajan, also filed nomination papers. Three National Conference legislators Chaudhary Muhammad Ramzan, Sajjad Kitchlu and Shammi Oberoi also filed their nomination papers.
According to the Election Commission’s notification, the last date for filing nominations is ending today. This is followed by October 14, the last date for the examination of nomination papers and October 16 is the last date for withdrawal of names. Voting by the legislators is scheduled on October 24.Based on current vote math, all three National Conference candidates appear to be winning. At the same time, BJP’s Sharma is in an advantage for the fourth seat. The contest will be between the National Conference and the BJP.
The National Conference has a numerical lead on an estimated 24 votes, with the BJP’s 28 MLAs for the seat. The Congress party, which has 6 MLAs, withdrew from the contest against the BJP for the fourth seat after the NC refused to candidature for the reserved seats.Despite the low numbers against its two candidates, the BJP was hoping for the victory of all three candidates. Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. “This is a non-party election and we hope that the MLAs will support our candidates,” Jatinder Singh said.” It is wrong to say that cross voting will be done by legislators or BJP will buy votes.
The 90-member assembly currently has 88 members. One seat fell vacant after the death of BJP MLA Devendra Singh Rana in November last year, while the other seat fell vacant after National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah resigned from the Budgam constituency. He had decided to retain his family’s traditional stronghold of Ganderbal by winning both seats in the 2024 election.
The National Conference has the support of 41 MLAs and 6 Congress MLAs, 5 Independents and CPI(M) leader Yusuf Tarigami. All these together make their total votes 53.
The BJP has 28 MLAs, while the rest of the votes are divided into smaller parties. PDP (3), People’s Conference (1), Aam Aadmi Party (1), and an independent MLA, Sheikh Khurshid, who is in alliance with Engineer Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP).
