After National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah was sworn in as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister on Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took a dig at the Congress, calling it “irrelevant” as the party was not included in Abudullah’s government despite being its pre-poll ally in the Valley.
Congress, which has six MLAs in the 90-member assembly, will be backing Omar Abudllah’s party, which has 42 MLAs, without any official portfolio in the government.
The BJP, which won 29 seats in the recently concluded J&K assembly polls, quipped at the Congress, saying it has “become a joke”.
“No Congress in the new J&K Cabinet. Now even NC has realized that Congress is irrelevant in the current political scenario of the country. It also goes to show how fragile their so-called INDI alliance is; one setback, and they fall to pieces. Congress has become a joke in alliance. No respect!” wrote BJP’s spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari on X.
BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya also spared no words to criticise the Congress for its dismal performance in Haryana and J&K polls.
“Not only in Haryana, Congress’s dream of coming to power in Jammu and Kashmir also stand shattered. JKNC has kept them out of the Govt. Rahul Gandhi’s party won a measly 6 (7 candidates won as independents) seats despite contesting 32 (as part of alliance) + 6 (contested against NC) seats,” Malviya wrote on X.
Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Rajiv Rajan Prasad, who is BJP’s ally in the NDA fold, said Congress has “hurt people” by not joining Abdullah’s government.
“Congress should have joined. There might be differences between JKNC and Congress on main issues. But the mandate is for both of them to form the government. This is opportunism. Somewhere they have hurt people. There are some issues where they are not able to take stand, maybe they have not taken decision to save themselves in national interest,” Rajiv Ranjan Prasad told news agency ANI.
The Congress party is unhappy over the fact that statehood has not been restored to Jammu and Kashmir, Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Tariq Hameed Karra said earlier in the day. “The statehood has not been restored to J& K. We are unhappy, therefore, we are not joining the ministry at the moment,” he said.