NC rules out tie up with BJP in J&K

Srinagar/Jammu, Jan 17: NC leader and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday ruled out any tie up with BJP in government formation in Jammu and Kashmir even as his father Farooq Abdullah retracted from his statement yesterday suggesting such a possibility.

Omar, the NC working President, said his party was not power hungry and would not make an ideological compromise.

"NC is not power hungry and is not interested in political power that comes through an ideological compromise. We shunned prospects of an alliance with the BJP a year ago and the reasons for having done that remain unchanged," Omar wrote on his official Facebook page.

Omar said the senior Abdullah was responding to a hypothetical question based on a hypothetical situation and he never said that the party would support the BJP. He only said that if any such request or proposal is received from the BJP, it will be taken up by the party's working committee.

Farooq retracted from his yesterday's statement and called for dissolving the assembly and holding fresh elections, if the coalition partners PDP and BJP fail to form the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

"If they (PDP and BJP) cannot solve the problems of the people they must dissolve the assembly and hold new elections", Farooq told reporters on the sidelines of a function here. Asked to comment on his statement in which he had said that his party's "doors were open" if BJP leadership approaches him to form the government in the state, he said that he had never said that his party was going with BJP.

"I had never said that we are going with BJP, it has to be made clear. I only said that PDP should form the government with the BJP as they have the mandate.I only said that our party can discuss on anything in our working committee," he said.

He said that his party has only 15 MLAs and with only 15 MLAs it cannot form the government. "We cannot take a decision as we don't have the mandate we are only 14-15 people and 14-15 people cannot form the government.

"I am not the one to take the decision, it is the party high command to take the decision," he said and advised the coalition partners BJP and PDP to iron out their difference and form the government without any delay as the delay was not good for this border state.

PTI