Omar Abdullah blames Mehbooba for closing door on ‘reconciliation, unity’

Srinagar, April 3 (IANS) Following the announcement of Mehbooba Mufti that her party will field candidates for Lok Sabha elections, National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Wednesday blamed her for “closing” doors on seat sharing.

Addressing a media conference, Mehbooba Mufti, President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said her party would field candidates for 3 Lok Sabha seats in Valley since the NC had, without any consultations with the PDP, decided to field its candidates for 3 Lok Sabha seats in the Valley.

Reacting to Mehbooba’s announcement, Omar Abdullah said, “We have kept the door open and if she has closed it then it is not our fault.”

He added that the NC had kept the door open for “reconciliation” and “unity”, but if she has closed it then it is not the NC’s fault.

“If PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has announced to field candidates on all 5 seats, it is her choice. We have fielded candidates on 3 seats in Kashmir based on her formula. If she is fielding her own candidates then perhaps she does not want any kind of alliance even for the assembly elections,” Omar said.

He said that the decision of Mehbooba Mufti depicts that the PDP is not willing to go for alliance in Assembly elections as well.

“We used PDP’s formula. We fielded candidates from those constituencies where NC had won previous Lok Sabha elections,” Omar added.

After Wednesday’s blame game between the NC and the PDP, it is clear that electoral swords are drawn now from both sides and while claiming to give a united fight to the BJP, the NC and the PDP would be directly locked in fighting each other in the Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

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