Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday termed the results and emerging trends of the District Development Council polls as an eye-opener for the BJP and its “proxy political party”, and said people have rejected the decision of revoking the erstwhile state’s special status.
Abdullah, who is the vice president of the National Conference (NC), told PTI that the results and trends are an “important milestone” for the People’s Alliance on Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) as they endorse the “out view” that revoking the special status of the erstwhile state of J-K and downgrading it into a Union Territory was not accepted by the people.
“Now if the BJP and its proxy political party believe in democracy, as they have stated, they should immediately reverse their decision and respect the verdict of the people of this region,” he said.
The NC leader said that the BJP had flown in a number of Union ministers and central leaders to campaign for the DDC elections.
“The BJP is the one which turned these elections as a referendum of its policy of 2019. I hope they have understood the desire of the people,” he said.
On August 5 last year, the Centre had revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The PAGD is leading in 71 seats and has won 25 so far whereas the BJP is leading in 48 and has won eight seats till now. The Congress is leading in 19 seats and had bagged four seats so far.
The PAGD is an alliance of seven political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, including the NC and the People’s Democratic Party.