‘Regretful He Saw Only One Paragraph’: Omar Abdullah Reacts To Amit Shah’s Remarks On NC Manifesto

Reacting to Amit Shah's comments, Abdullah said he was "thankful" to the Home Minister for taking notice of the NC's manifesto, saying, "He forced those people who till now were not ready to read our manifesto."

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Elections 2024: National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah Sunday ‘thanked’ Amit Shah for noticing his party’s manifesto for the upcoming Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, but said that it was regretful that the Union Home Minister only noticed one paragraph in the entire document

“It is regretful that the Home Minister saw only one paragraph in our manifesto and he also talked about certain things which are not in our manifesto like name-changing. I re-read our manifesto after the home minister’s tweet to check whether I missed it, but it does not talk about that. But, still I am thankful to the home minister,” the former Chief Minister said.

Shah attacks NC manifesto

On Friday, Amit Shah launched a blistering attack on the Congress, slamming the opposition party for its alliance with the NC for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly polls.

The Home Minister accused the Congress of repeatedly risking the country’s unity and security in its “greed for power”, alleging that the grand-old party has “exposed its ulterior motives by allying with the Abdullah family’s National Conference,”.

In a post on X, Shah posed 10 questions for the Congress and its leader Rahul Gandhi, while listing several of the manifesto promises of the NC.

“Does the Congress want ‘Shankaracharya Hill’ to be known as ‘Takht-e-Suleiman’, and ‘Hari Hill’ as ‘Koh-e-Maran?” Shah had asked.

‘Thankful’ he read NC manifesto

Reacting to Shah’s comments, Abdullah said he was “thankful” to the Home Minister for taking notice of the NC’s manifesto, saying, “He forced those people who till now were not ready to read our manifesto.”

I am thankful to the home minister from the core of my heart for talking about our manifesto. For a small party, contesting an election in a far-flung area of the country, it is a huge thing that the country’s home minister has seen our manifesto,” Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar after a party function.

People who were not ready to read it, have now been compelled to go through it now, he added.

‘Welcome Jamaat leaders’ decision to contest polls’

Queried about reports of banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) leaders mulling to contest the polls as independent candidates, Omar called it a welcome step.

“This is the beauty of democracy. I read in the media that JeI wanted the ban on it to be revoked so that they contest the polls. Unfortunately, the election bugle was sounded and the ban could not be revoked.

“Today, there are reports that they will contest as independent candidates. Bismillah. We wanted them to contest on their own symbol in JeI’s name, but let them contest even as independents. Let them plunge into the field, bring their manifesto and their promises. Then it is up to the people to decide whom they would like to vote,” Abdullah added.

Asked if he would contest the polls from Ganderbal, Abdullah, who represented the constituency in the erstwhile Assembly from 2009-14 when he was the chief minister, said the party will take a decision on that.

(With PTI inputs)