Srinagar, Sep 15: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday dismissed speculation about instability within his legislature party, asserting that he has complete faith in his MLAs and does not fear any of them slipping away, while launching a blistering attack on unnamed critics he accused of working at the behest of agencies based on Gupkar Road.
Asked on the sidelines of a function at the SKICC here whether he feared some of his MLAs could be poached, CM Omar Abdullah as per news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) said, Do I count my MLAs daily or not? You are asking this, aren’t you? So you ask am I afraid that some of my MLAs will slip away? I am not at all afraid. I have complete faith in my people.
The Chief Minister, without naming anyone, said he knew the identity of those fuelling speculation about his government’s stability, alleging they were a couple of people who collected envelopes from the offices of agencies on Gupkar Road and had approached him for adjustment immediately after his government was formed.
These people who are in between… I know who they are. These are a couple of people who take their envelopes from the offices of the agencies of Gupkar Road. These are the same people who came to my office as soon as the government was formed to adjust me somewhere, he said.
Claiming that he had refrained from speaking out to preserve their dignity, CM Omar Abdullah said those now counting MLAs were the very individuals he had refused to accommodate in his government.
Now, to keep their respect, I do not open my mouth. But you… remove the remote. They come to my office. You will find the names of all these people who are counting MLAs today. Because I did not give them a job in my government, now they start writing, he said.
Taking aim at commentators critical of his administration, the Chief Minister attributed their hostility to personal self-interest, saying they had turned to social media against the government after being denied government accommodation.
Here are those commentators who do not get a government house, so they use social media against the government. If I had given them a flat in Jawahar Nagar, would they have dared to write like this? This is selfishness, isn’t it? And I am not worried about selfishness, CM Omar Abdullah said. (KNS)
