National Conference on Thursday termed the BJP-PDP alliance for Rajya Sabha elections as “unholy and opportunistic” and asked other parties and independent MLAs to vote for Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in the February 7 polls.
“For chair they (PDP) have sold their conscience, and have been saying in the past that they are not power hungry,” NC working president Omar Abdullah said while addressing roadside rallies in his Beerwah assembly constituency of Budgam district.
“All the secular parties and individuals should come together and defeat the unholy alliance between the PDP and BJP for the Rajya Sabha seat,” the former chief minister said.
Omar said people who till yesterday were shouting from roof tops about not being power hungry are suddenly selling their own conscience to be on chair.
“Azad Sahib’s victory is important for the secular ethos of the state and every secular party and individual MLA should vote for him and ensure his victory,” he said.
He said since Azad’s victory is assured it will be interesting to see which party would want to be called the weaker partner when the result will be out for the other seats.
“The result of the election for the other Rajya Sabha seats will indicate who will be the weaker partner of the alliance,” Omar said.
“This will be a precursor to the events that will unfold in their future government formation and determine who will dictate terms in this alliance,” he added.
Rajya Sabha polls for four seats of Jammu and Kashmir will be held on February 7. While BJP and PDP have entered into a seat-sharing arrangement, National Conference is supporting the candidature of Azad for re-election to the Rajya Sabha.
Given the party position in the 87-member Legislative Assembly, the BJP-PDP combine is assured of victory on three seats but Azad can win another term in the Upper House of the Parliament if he is able to get support of two or more independent MLAs in addition to the 15 MLAs of National Conference and 12 from Congress.
