Rajya Sabha polls: Omar Abdullah raises suspicions on allies over BJP’s unexpected votes

BJP’s Sat Sharma won the fourth seat with 32 votes, surpassing party’s strength of 28 legislators, leading to widespread speculation of cross-voting.

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Friday questioned how the BJP managed to secure four extra votes in the Rajya Sabha elections, raising suspicions over Congress, PDP and independent legislators who had pledged support to NC candidates.

Taking to micro blogging site X, Omar asserted that all NC votes remained intact across the four seats contested and challenged those responsible for the BJP’s unexpected tally.

“All of @JKNC_ votes remained intact across the four elections, as witnessed by our election agent who saw each polling slip. There was no cross voting from any of our MLAs so the questions arise - where did the 4 extra votes of the BJP come from?” he asked.

Omar went on to ask, “Who were the MLAs who deliberately invalidated their votes by marking a wrong preference number while voting? Do they have the guts to put their hands up and own up to helping the BJP after promising us their votes? What pressure or inducement helped them make this choice? Let’s see if any of the BJP’s secret team own up to selling their souls!”

The Rajya Sabha elections, held for the first time in over a decade since the revocation of Article 370, saw the I.N.D.I.A. bloc secure three of the four vacant seats, with NC candidates Chowdry Mohammad Ramzan, Sajad Kichloo, and G.S. Oberoi (Shammi Oberoi) emerging victorious.

The BJP’s Sat Sharma won the fourth seat with 32 votes, surpassing the party’s Assembly strength of 28 legislators in the 88-member House, leading to widespread speculation of cross-voting.

Not only four MLAs cross voted, but the NC candidate Imran Nabi Dar only polled 22 votes giving speculations that a few legislators might have invalidated their votes.