STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday claimed that the BJP-ruled Centre was fielding independent candidates against him in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections in a bid to silence him.
“I always knew that Delhi would want to silence me in some way but I never thought that they would go to this extent. In Baramulla (Lok Sabha elections), when a person (Sheikh Abdul Rashid) stood against me in the polls, having filed the papers while in jail, he recorded his message from jail and sought votes based on emotions. He defeated me in the elections,” he said.
“I did not see it as something worrisome,” Abdullah said during election rallies in the Ganderbal Assembly segment from where is contesting the polls.
The former chief minister said after the results of Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, he thought luck was on Rashid’s side and it was his “bad luck”.
“But when I decided to contest (assembly) polls from Ganderbal, reports started pouring in that another citizen (Sarjan Ahmad Wagay alias Barkati) who is in jail is going to contest against me. I was forced to think why these people are put only after me. Is there a conspiracy?’ he asked.
Abdullah said he could understand Rashid contesting the Lok Sabha polls against him as he was a local from the constituency.
“When they could not find a local (Ganderbal) person in jail, they brought one (Barkati) from Zainapora-Shopian. I still thought maybe it was a coincidence. I consulted a few of my colleagues and told them that I want to prove that it is a conspiracy from Delhi against me,” he said.
Abdullah said his team collected nomination papers from a couple of constituencies without revealing where they will file the papers from.