SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah held last-minute discussions for Friday’s Rajya Sabha polls with his party leaders, the strategy mostly focussing on securing the all-important votes from independent MLAs. To keep them going, they had a regular supply of ‘pakoras’ and ‘chai’, he said.
National Conference (NC) and alliance members visited the chief minister’s office in the assembly complex here as NC leaders worked out the arithmetic for the polls in four Upper House seats in Jammu and Kashmir, voting for which is ongoing.
Amid all the serious strategising and deliberations, the chief minister put out pictures of his office on social media platform X.
“Behind the scenes in my office in the assembly complex while we work out the arithmetic and strategy of the Rajya Sabha polls,” Abdullah said on his personal handle on X.
“Sustenance comes from a regular supply of paneer and onion pakodas and canteen chai,” he added.
Voting was underway on Friday for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
This is the first Rajya Sabha election from Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of J&K into two Union territories on August 5, 2019.
The Rajys Sabha elections in J&K are divided into three notifications. The Election Commission of India had issued three notifications for the four Rajya Sabha seats in J&K, holding elections separately on two seats while the polls for the other two seats are being held under a common notification.
Chowdhury Mohammed Ramzan of the NC is in a direct contest with Ali Mohammed Mir of the BJP in one of the seats.
For the second seat, NC’s Sajjad Kitchloo is fighting against Rakesh Mahajan of the BJP.
For the third notification, the NC has fielded party treasurer G S Oberoi, also known as Shammi Oberoi, and its young state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar against BJP’s Sat Sharma.
The NC and PDP issued three-line whips to their respective MLAs on Thursday to ensure their presence for casting votes in favour of the ruling party candidates.
The PDP as well as the Congress have announced their support to the ruling NC.
Going by numbers, the 41-member strong NC, which has the backing of the six Congress, three PDP and one CPM MLAs, and six Independents, is likely to sail through in three seats.
The contest for the final seat is razor-thin.
The assembly has a strength of 88 MLAs out of which the NC-led ruling coalition plus PDP members give them a combined strength of 57.
The BJP, with 28 assembly members, strategically named its Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Sat Sharma in the third notification.
