National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, shortly after thrashing out what he called a “tough” seat-sharing deal with ally Congress, said he was surprised that the BJP, which prides itself on its discipline, failed to announce its candidates without a hitch. 

“For them to have furniture broken in their office and almost a riot like situation was extremely unusual. But then, I’m not surprised. When you suddenly change all your senior leaders, you are going to have a problem,” Mr Abdullah said.

The BJP had released a list of 44 candidates for the three-phase election to 90 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, but deleted it and released a list with 15 names — the candidates for the first phase. 

The change followed a massive display of resentment from the local leaders. The list which was deleted, contained names of leaders who had switched over from the Congress, National Conference, PDP and Panthers Party. 

“When you reward turncoats, you reward those who have left other parties and come and join you… Look at the embarrassment. I have never seen a situation where the party has had to withdraw its list within 10 minutes and then put out a truncated list,” Mr Abdullah said. 

About the challenges faced by the INDIA alliance – Congress had to fly in two central leaders, KC Venugopal and Salman Khurshid, at the eleventh hour – Mr Abdullah said both parties were new to it. 

Seat sharing, for any party, is not easy, Mr Abdullah said. But for the current National Conference leaders, including himself, a pre-poll seat sharing was a first, he said, pointing out that the last time it happened was in the 1980s.

“This is the first time I have had any negotiations for a seat sharing arrangement, coupled with the fact that we haven’t had assembly elections in J&K for 10 years,” Mr Abdullah said. “This was never going to be easy, but all credit to the negotiators of the Congress and the National Conference, we reached where we are,’ he added. 

The two parties cracked the deal late in the evening – hours before the deadline for nominations of the first phase. 

The National Conference will contest 51 of the 90 assembly seats, the Congress will contest 32. The parties will have a friendly contest on the five seats they disagreed on, and two seats will be left for the CPM and the Panthers Party.

Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are being held after a decade, is headed for a triangular contest between the BJP, Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party and the National Conference-Congress alliance. 

In 2014, the BJP formed a ruling alliance with the PDP after the election results presented a hung house. But the alliance of the two ideologically mismatched parties was short-lived and Jammu and Kashmir came under President’s Rule in 2018. 

The big surprise of this election is the participation of the candidates of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami, who are contesting as Independents. 

“I think it’s an important development,” Mr Abdullah said. “An organisation that spent the last 30-plus years telling the people of Kashmir that elections are ‘haram’, that they should not participate in elections, was talking about Jammu and Kashmir not being a part of India, today is willing to take the same oath on the Constitution of India that mainstream political parties have taken. This is a huge development,” he said. 

About his own decision to contest the assembly elections, the former Chief Minister said, “I am not getting into the powers of the chief minister and all that… Ultimately, if I believe I am a leader of the National Conference, then I must lead”. 

From the point of view of the assembly, he said it would be “hypocritical” or “seen as hypocritical” if he were to tell people that “I don’t believe in this assembly, but you must vote”.

“Whatever the flaws of this assembly, it is still better than what we have now. This assembly may not be the assembly that it was in 2018, but it is still an assembly that will speak for them that will fight for their rights. And also this is an assembly that will bring back the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir. We’ll make a start from there,” he added. 

The 54-year-old will contest from Ganderbal.