The top leadership of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference appears to be divided on the issue of joining the opposition's efforts to form an anti-BJP front at the national level because Dr. Farooq Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah have adopted different lines on this issue.
Veteran politician Dr. Farooq Abdullah is president of the National Conference while as former Chief Minister is vice-president of the party.
Just two days back Omar Abdullah has hinted to maintain a distance from the opposition unity campaign as he lambasted most of the opposition parties for supporting the abrogation of Article 370.
On the other hand, the national president of Janta Dal (United) JD(U) Rajiv Ranjan Singh Lalan announced that Dr. Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti will attend the meeting of the non-BJP party.
The much-publicized meeting of the non-BJP parties is scheduled to be held on June 23 at Bihar's capital Patna on the initiative of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Reports said that the national president of Janta Dal (U) has given this statement after taking consent from Dr. Farooq Abdullah who is the president of the National Conference.
"In all, leaders of 18 parties have agreed to attend the meeting. National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, both former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir, have also agreed to come", said JD (U) president.
Earlier, he had said leaders who had given their assent included Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge from Congress, besides Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), Mamata Banerjee (TMC), M K Stalin (DMK), Hemant Soren (JMM), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Akhilesh Yadav (SP) and Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena-UBT).
Omar is not interested in joining opposition's unity campaign
Important to mention here that ahead of the meeting of the opposition leaders at Patna on June 23, Omar Abdullah on Saturday dropped hints that his party would stay away from any alliance against BJP.
Speaking to the media persons in Rajouri, Omar Abdullah hinted at his party staying away from the grand alliance against the BJP in the next year's general elections.
"We have nothing at stake outside Jammu and Kashmir. We have a total of five Lok Sabha seats. We have to fight against the BJP on these seats and what is going outside J&K is a secondary question," Abdullah said.
While debunking the opposition's unity efforts, Omar said there are only four parties – DMK, Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, and two Left parties – which always stood with the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
