Will abstain from voting in Rajya Sabha elections: Sajad Lone

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference president and MLA Sajad Lone on Tuesday (October 14, 2025) said his party would abstain from voting in the coming Rajya Sabha elections on October 24.

“I would rather die than vote for the National Conference [NC]. Stop dictating to us who we should vote for and who we should not. You cannot label us. You are not Yuvraj,” Mr. Lone said. 

Referring to NC vice-president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s remarks that abstaining meant voting for the BJP, Mr. Lone said, “Today you [Mr. Abdullah] are in the dock. You have to prove to the people that you did not deny a Rajya Sabha seat to the Congress on the BJP’s orders. Prove to the people that you are not sitting in the BJP lap.”

Rejecting claims that abstention signals support for the BJP, Mr. Lone said he would not be surprised if Mr. Abdullah accused the Congress of having a pact with the BJP. “Your [Mr. Abdullah] sense of entitlement is synonymous with lunacy,” he said.

Mr. Lone accused Mr. Abdullah of cosying up to the BJP. “Do you expect our vote because you gifted crores of shawls to BJP leaders? Because you are nonstop partying with them in Delhi? Or is it because you were the first to give them a fair election certificate? Or should we support you because you were caught red-handed strolling hand in hand with the author of the draconian waqf bill, Mr. Kiren Rijiju, in Tulip Garden?” he said.

The JKPC has one seat in the 88-member Assembly. Mr. Lone said the NC was acting as “the BJP’s proxy in Jammu and Kashmir”. “You take orders from them, deny seats to other parties, and still accuse others of being aligned with the BJP. You have sacrificed everyone for them and won through lies and deceit,” he added.

Contrasting the NC with the Congress, Mr. Lone said, “The Congress has consistently stood against the BJP and is the only national party capable of restoring statehood. Yet you humiliate them. I have personally assured support to many Congress leaders. For the NC, however, we will never vote.”

Mr. Lone questioned the NC government’s legacy. “You travelled the world as Foreign Minister of the then BJP government, justifying killings in Kashmir. The people voted for a leader, what they got was an errand boy for BJP. You have brought disrepute to the institution of Chief Minister. It will take a decade to restore this institution to its former glory,” Mr. Lone said.