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Budgam & Nagrota bypolls: Omar, BJP exchange barbs as final day of campaigning ends
Campaigning began on October 13 with the issuance of the election notification and saw leaders from several parties, especially the NC and the BJP, crisscross the constituency over the last four weeks to garner support
33 hopefuls await polling day after volatile campaign finale
As the election campaigning ended in Budgam and Nagrota on Sunday, Bharatiya Janata(BJP) Party launched a scathing attack on chief minister Omar Abdullah calling him to swear by Quran if he didn’t have friendships with BJP in Delhi and then say otherwise in Kashmir.
Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in assembly, Sunil Sharma charged Abdullah of offering his party National Conference’s support to BJP after 2014 assembly elections to form the government.
Sharma was campaigning on the last day of canvassing in Budgam for the party candidate Syed Aga Mohsin for Budgam seat which is going to polls on November 11.
Sharma said that Omar Abdullah would ask people in Kashmir to remain away from BJP while he would have tea and lunch in Delhi.
“Those people who are telling you that vote them to stop BJP, first ask those people to raise Quran on their head and say whether they don’t have a friendship with BJP. .Every resident of Kashmir question Omar Abdullah to swear at a shrine or mosque and put Quran in hand and on his head and then swear ‘you don’t have a friendship with BJP’. Let’s go to any shrine or mosque and raise the pious book on head and decide whether you go to Delhi and do lunch with any leader. And that you are not having tea at anybody’s home. If they say ‘no, they don’t’ with the Quran in their hand, then vote for them,” Sharma said, often interpersing his speech with Kashmiri sentences.
There is a fierce contest for Budgam as NC has fielded Aga Mehmood, PDP Aga Syed Muntazir and BJP Syed Mohsin in the constituency. Awami Itihad Party’s Nazir Ahmad Khan is also trying hard to garner support from the people. The constituency fell vacant after Omar Abdullah chose to retain Ganderbal constituency and vacate Budgam after winning both the seats in 2024 assembly elections.
The LoP claimed that Omar Abdullah had offered his party’s support to form government in BJP after 2014 assembly elections.
“Mr Omar Abdullah, I swear and say with authenticity, weren’t you roaming outside Delhi doors in 2014? Weren’t you offering the 16 seats to be included in government? We will swear on this , otherwise you swear....Let the truth be brought before Kashmir people about the love story behind the curtains. And then in front of the curtain it is said that BJP has to be stopped. Even then Delhi leadership said that they have been given the mandate of sitting in opposition. We didn’t accept (his support) and his face had changed that. And here he said that they didn’t allow,” Sharma said.
In 2014 elections, PDP with 28 seats and BJP with 25 seats had formed a coalition government after a fractured mandate in the 87 member assembly. NC had won 15 seats.
The coalition then fell when BJP took back its support from the government in 2018 and the region came under governor’s rule.
Sharma said that Abdullah and Mufti family would consider Kashmir as their ‘jageer (estate)’.
“They know that they just have to say that whosoever goes to BJP is ‘kafir’. And other things they would say are ‘Azadi, Pakistan, China, Hurriyat or Jamaat’. Because we will not talk those things. And they would consider Kashmir as their ‘estate’- Abdullah and Mufti clans,” he said.
“Whatever we do like bringing roads under PMGSY or construct flyovers, connect rail from Jammu to Baramulla, sehat card, free ration, schemes in Jal Jevan Mission but ‘we are untouchables’ (for them) because this is jageer of two clans or two families,” Sharma charged.
PDP-BJP govt brought destruction in J&K: Omar
Chief minister Omar Abdullah, while taking to media during the campaigning, accused PDP-BJP government of bringing destruction in J&K.
“What did they give apart from destruction - 2016, Sarfeasi law and then GST. The expelling of government employees didn’t start in 2019, it was PDP-BJP government for which the first signatory was Mehbooba Mufti under whose orders govt employees were dismissed,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah launched an attack on PDP saying his government was trying to restore the things in J&K after the destruction following 2014 coalition government.
“The roots of removing Art 370 started after BJP was brought into secretariat (by PDP). The base of removal of Art 35 A started from there. What did we benefit? There was destruction of 2016.So many people were killed. They didn’t apologise for 2016 or for aligning with BJP. .. Aren’t they ready to accept this historic blunder, “ he said.
He said that why was Mehbooba Mufti shy of apologising. “ How many youth were arrested after 2016 and how many of them were released. I am sure that fewer were relased than those arrested and that too through courts. . . If there has been a mistake there should have been an apology, “ he said.
Abdullah said that he has no fear of PDP which just has three MLAs. “What would they be able to do. I have faith of people. I only fear Allah and I fear no one, particularly that party which did nothing in J&K exception destruction. Yesterday she said that their govt did a lot of work and I kept thinking what did PDP-BJP govt give to J&K. One IIT in Jammu, IIM in Jammu, AIMS is functional in Jammu but Kashmir’s AIMS is yet to be constructed. It will take two more year for its construction,’ he said.
“I am trying for good representation of Budgam for the next four years. This one seat neither will make a govt nor will fall any govt. The govt has formed and I am the CM. I would want the people of Budgam to use their vote correctly,” he said.
Triangular contest in Nagrota
Campaigning for the high-stakes Nagrota Assembly by-election in Jammu region concluded on Sunday evening, with all 10 candidates making their final appeals to voters ahead of polling on November 11.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP legislator Devender Singh Rana last year and has shaped up into a triangular contest among BJP’s Devyani Rana, National Conference’s (NC) Shamim Begum, and J&K National Panthers Party president Harsh Dev Singh.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s Joginder Singh, Apni Party’s Bodh Raj, and five others, including three independents, are also trying their luck from the constituency, which has 97,893 registered voters and 150 polling stations.
Campaigning began on October 13 with the issuance of the election notification and saw leaders from several parties, especially the NC and the BJP, crisscross the constituency over the last four weeks to garner support.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and Union Minister Jitendra Singh joined the campaign trail, lending momentum in its final phase. Deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary, several ministers, and provincial leaders of the NC also held a series of rallies in support of Begum.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Sat Sharma and party MLAs campaigned for Devyani Rana, who wrapped up her outreach with a series of meetings across the constituency.
She said her political journey was guided by her father’s vision of a progressive Nagrota and vowed to continue his developmental initiatives.
NC nominee Shamim Begum appealed to voters to support her party’s development-oriented agenda, saying the NC government had laid the foundation for progress in Nagrota.
“We will build upon that legacy and work to strengthen public services and empowerment,” Begum, who is a district development council member, said.
The NC fielded Begum after its coalition partner, Congress, declined the offer to contest the seat.
Harsh Dev Singh, a former minister, called upon voters to “choose merit over emotion,” asserting that Nagrota needed a representative who could focus on genuine development and accountability.
Since the 1996 Assembly elections, the BJP has won the Nagrota seat three times -- 2002, 2008, and 2024 -- while the NC secured victories twice in 1996 and 2014.
Devender Singh Rana had twice represented Nagrota -- in 2014 and 2024 -- winning the last election with a record margin of 30,472 votes against his NC rival Joginder Singh after switching to the BJP from the NC in 2021.
