The chief minister also said he is exploring the possibility of becoming a party to the plea for the restoration of statehood to J-K in the Supreme Court.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday asserted he will not ally with the BJP to hasten the restoration of statehood to the Union Territory, saying his party has no intention of repeating the “mistakes” committed by others in the past.
The chief minister also said he is exploring the possibility of becoming a party to the plea for the restoration of statehood to J-K in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of pleas seeking restoration of statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and on October 10, it gave the Centre four weeks to file its response.
Abdullah said if the restoration of statehood is dependent on the BJP coming to power in J-K, then the national party should be honest in saying so.
“If that is the deal that is to be struck with the people, then the BJP should be honest, because the BJP in its manifesto and its promises to Parliament and to the Supreme Court never said that the statehood is dependent on the BJP coming to power in J-K.
“If that is the case, then I think the BJP should be honest, they should tell us that so long as there is a non-BJP government in J-K, you will not get statehood. Then we will decide what we want to do,” he said.
However, Abdullah added that “tying up with the BJP or an alliance with the BJP is out of the question”.
He said J-K is “still suffering the after-effects” of the PDP-BJP alliance in 2015.
“We have already seen how much that has destroyed J-K. An unnecessary alliance between the PDP and the BJP was born in 2015. We are still suffering the after-effects of that. I have no intention of repeating mistakes that other people have made,” the CM added.
Asked if he had any hopes with the Supreme Court on the restoration of statehood, Abdullah said, “We should have hopes. But it is also right that somewhere Pahalgam is being linked to restoration of statehood. People of J-K did not support it. No one involved in the attack was from J-K.” Abdullah added, “I won’t go into the politics of it. Repeatedly it was said in Parliament that there are three steps – delimitation, election and statehood. Two steps have been taken, now we hope the third will also be done,” he added.
Abdullah said he is consulting senior lawyers in Jammu and Kashmir as well as in Delhi about the possibility of becoming a party to the statehood restoration petition before the apex court in view of his unique experience as having been a chief minister of the state and also a Union Territory.
