Omar Should Stop Giving Sermons on Article 370; His Party Can Approach Centre for Statehood: Ram Madhav

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Madhav on Wednesday said the National Conference’s poor show in the Jammu region was “clear rejection” of Omar Abdullah’s stand on “Article 370”. Speaking exclusively to CNN-News18 a day after the Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana Assembly election results were declared, Madhav said Omar should “not give sermons on Article 370.”

“The people of Jammu and rejected Omar Abdullah. This is a clear rejection of Omar’s policy on Article 370 as he did not get any seats in the jammu region,” Madhav said, adding that the National Conference benefitted from the division of votes in the valley and that the party’s vote share was lower than BJP.

This came after Omar Abdullah said, “I would like to believe that Article 370 will be reinstated…It is our political ideology. We are ready for the struggle.”

While the NC-Congress combine won the Jammu and Kashmir elections with 48 seats, the BJP registered its best ever performance in J&K with 29 seats. Soon after the election results, NC leader Omar Abdullah said that statehood for Jammu and Kashmir would be one of the top priorities of their government in the union territory. When asked about this, Madhav said, “Let Omar approach the central government for the restoration for statehood.”

When asked about Omar’s remarks on maintaining a cordial working relationship with the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Madhav said, “There won’t be any problem for Omar to run the government. Gentlemanship should be on both sides. Omar sometimes behaves like Kejriwal. Omar is also as much responsible for maintaining cordial relations with the central government.”

Meanwhile, Madhav also stated that while the BJP could not get any seats in the valley, the party will work towards winning the hearts of the people in the region. “The BJP wants to become a pan-valley party or just restrict itself to Jammu region, the party will have to think about it. There was huge positivity towards the BJP in the valley but we could not convert it into votes. Very soon, we will win the hearts of the people of the valley and get seats in the valley as well,” he said.