Why Omar Abdullah is rethinking stand against contesting J&K Assembly polls

“At the moment, you have a disempowered assembly. Which is again, why I said — look I have been the leader of J&K state’s assembly, I am not going to J&K UT assembly and act as if nothing has changed. So long as J&K remains a UT, I will never be a member of its Assembly. Hopefully, when J&K is restored to statehood then we can start taking a look at everything that has been done and see what options are available to us,” Omar said at the time.

In a recent interview to The Indian Express, published on August 7, the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of J&K again emphasised that he would not contest the elections. “No, I am not contesting. I have made it very clear. I have been the CM of a state, the CM of the (once) most empowered state. I can’t see myself in a position where I would have to ask the LG for appointing my peon. It’s as simple as that … I am not going to sit outside the waiting room of the LG and, ask him, ‘Sir, please sign the file’,” Omar said.

On Friday, after the Election Commission (EC) announced that the Assembly elections in J&K — the first in almost a decade — would be held in three phases from September 18 onwards, the NC leader announced he was having a rethink amid “pressure from within the party”.

The former CM told reporters in Srinagar that he would take a call soon after discussions with his father and NC president Farooq Abdullah and party colleagues. “As far as the question about me contesting the elections is, I still believe I don’t want to contest the polls. But the fact is that there is a lot of pressure from within the party … I will sit together with my colleagues in the party, talk to them, and come to a decision in two or three days,” Omar said.

The NC vice-president said his father was insisting that he contest the polls. “There is another problem for me,” Omar said. “My father, who is old and doesn’t keep well at times, has said that if I don’t contest the polls, he will be forced to take the field. This is an issue of concern for me. I will talk to my party colleagues, I will discuss with Farooq sahib, and arrive at a decision.”

An NC leader said, “There is a sense within the party that it should not leave open any chance at whatsoever level. When we decided to boycott the panchayat and municipal polls, we soon realised that it was a mistake and that we had handed over these institutions to people who would ruin Jammu and Kashmir. We do not want such a repetition. The government has been trying hard to replace the traditional leaders and we provided them a chance back then. Thankfully, they could not exploit that. If we stay, new people will emerge.”

Another NC functionary said that while there had been discussions about giving the CM post to a senior leader, Farooq Abdullah did not want to loosen his grip on the party. “There are no doubt differences between the party’s old and new guard. Farooq sahib has been maintaining a delicate balance and keeping the flock together. If someone else is given charge, the party could unravel. Farooq sahib does not want that to happen. That is why he is adamant that Omar sahib should join the contest or else he will himself,” said the leader.

Omar lost the recent Lok Sabha election from Baramulla to Independent candidate Engineer Rashid. He is a three-time Lok Sabha MP and has represented the Assembly constituencies of Ganderbal (2008-2014) — though he lost the seat, which his grandfather Sheikh Abdullah and father represented, in the 2002 election — and Beerwah (2014-2019).