‘BJP respects democratic traditions’: NDA leaders defend against Omar Abdullah's ‘trying to break my party’ charge

PRaful Patel, BJP friend NCP's workings chairperson, said on sun that ground Minister Narendra Modi's party “fully respects democratic traditions”. He was refuting claims by Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah that the BJP was attempting to lure his party National Conference's (NC) MLAs to try and come to power in the UT “through the back door”.Patel, who remained a minister in the Congress-led UPA regime of Manmohan Singh before Modi rose to power, said the BJP “operates with faith in the democratic process”.He rejected Omar Abdullah's allegations that the BJP was “breaking several political parties”.Patel belongs to the late Ajit Pawar's NCP that got the original name and symbol from the Election Commission in 2024, after Ajit split with his uncle, party co-founder Sharad Pawar, to align with the ruling BJP in Maharashtra and at the Centre. This was after the BJP faced allegations that it engineered a split also in the Shiv Sena before that.Also read | 'Enough is enough': Omar Abdullah takes J&K statehood campaign to Delhi, protest on July 20 On the subject of Jammu and Kashmir UT, Patel stressed that the National Conference (NC) emerged as the single largest party in the elections held in 2024 and got the support of the Congress. “No obstacles were placed in the way of that alliance forming a government there, and this is considered a healthy democratic practice,” Patel told reporters in Gondia, Maharashtra.“Today, Congress and other parties run governments in many Indian states; any talk or suggestion of suppressing democracy in those places is wrong,” he further insisted.'We don't need to include anyone else'Also speaking on the issue, Chhattisgarh assembly speaker and former CM Raman Singh said the BJP had “no interest in such matters".“The BJP is the world's largest party. We don't need to include anyone else,” he said.In recent weeks, the BJP benefitted from defections in the AAP — gaining six Rajya Sabha MPs led by Raghav Chadha — and later in Bengal's TMC of Mamata Banerjee whose breakaway MPs have aligned with the BJP-led NDA via a little-known party of Tripura. The Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray also saw defections to BJP-aligned Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde.But senior BJP leader Dinesh Sharma claimed Omar Abdullah was making claims of attempt to break his party as “they are Congress' allies, so they too have the same Congress mentality; if they see defeat coming, they start levelling accusations”.What NC leader, Cong saidCongress MP Imran Masood launched a counter-offensive, saying, “Democracy is in danger, and people must take a stand. The economy is down, and opposition leaders are being targeted. We all are witnessing what's happening in Bengal."Specifically, Omar Abdullah claimed that the BJP attempted to lure at least one of his party's MLAs with an “offer of ₹20-30 crore” and a ministerial berth to switch sides.He accused the BJP of breaking several political parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Shiv Sena (UBT), and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).He was addressing a National Conference rally on the statehood demand ahead of a planned 'Delhi Chalo' protest for July 20.The J&K CM called the BJP a “backdoor party”, saying that it breaks the ruling parties in states where they fail to secure a majority.Electoral mathFollowing the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the Centre formed two Union Territories by splitting the then state of J&K, forming J&K and Ladakh as separate UTs, with the former having an assembly and CM.Elections were held in 2024 and recorded a 63.45% voter turnout. The National Conference-Congress alliance won a decisive victory with 49 of the 90 assembly seats to clear the majority mark. Individually, the JKNC won 42 seats, the Indian National Congress won six, and the CPI(M) won one.The BJP secured 29 seats, sweeping the the Jammu region that has a Hindu concentration in the Muslim-majority UT. The PDP, which had been in power with BJP support before the 2019 move, got just three seats.Union home minister Amit Shah had said that the status of a state would be restored once the situation “normalises”. In 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the move to abrogate Article 370, while not taking up the question of the restoration of statehood, as the Centre had submitted that it would be restored “in due time”.