Jammu, Oct 25: BJP winning a Rajya Sabha seat from Jammu and Kashmir vindicated “vote chori” charges against the party, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary alleged on Saturday.
Amid a blame game over “cross-voting” in the election for one Rajya Sabha seat among non-BJP parties in J-K, Choudhary said the National Conference (NC) would prefer to leave the government than ally with the BJP.
On Friday, the ruling NC won three seats, while the BJP managed to win the fourth seat in the first Rajya Sabha elections held in Jammu and Kashmir after it became a Union territory in 2019.
“We used to hear that the BJP buys and steals votes but the people in Jammu and Kashmir did not believe it. But it has been proven this time that the BJP is really involved in vote chori.
“I will not say how they did it, whether money was involved or not but whatever happened, they managed some votes,” the deputy chief minister told reporters in Udhampur district.
Opposition parties, mainly the Congress, have been alleging that the BJP and the Election Commission have colluded to “steal votes” to win elections.
Choudhary, who is scheduled to join NC candidate Shamim Begum in campaigning for the Nagrota bypolls, said the BJP only had 28 members but their candidate got 32 votes. “From where did they get the four extra votes?”
“This lollipop party teaches us a lesson about decency and principles but they should learn the lesson of decency and principles from us,” he said.
Chaudhary said the NC has not exchanged votes for money or made any other promise and asserted that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has been saying from the beginning that the BJP was going to indulge in horse-trading. “They have done horse trading, which is now proven,” he said.
None of the NC legislators cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha elections in favour of the BJP candidate, he said.
“We can leave the government, but we will not ally with the BJP. We were supposed to win all four seats, but we lost one seat because of some traitors who betrayed us after assuring their support,” he said.
“We basically gave this (fourth Rajya Sabha) seat to Congress but it did not fight and we had to field our candidate at the last moment,” he added.
He said he is not scared of speaking the truth and will continue to raise his voice against the BJP. “If I had a tie-up with the BJP, I would not have spoken the truth, my security would not have been downgraded. We will continue to work as the voice of the people.”
Choudhary said those blaming NC for the loss of the fourth RS seat are doing it to “cover their actions” from the public. “What does abstain mean? It means to help the BJP. They are hand-in-glove with the BJP,” he said in an apparent reference to Peoples Conference leader Sajad Gani Lone.
Lone has accused the ruling NC of “gifting” seven votes to the BJP to ensure the saffron party’s victory on one seat in the Rajya Sabha polls held on Friday, calling the elections a “fixed match” between the two parties.
Choudhary said the NC leaders elected to the Rajya Sabha will become the people’s voice in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
“They will be the voice of the J-K government and the voice of the poor people,” he said, adding the party gave representation to the Sikh community in the Rajya Sabha by fielding Gurwinder Singh Oberoi.
The deputy chief minister added his party will fight the Nagrota bypolls with all its might to win the seat.
