National Conference hasn't asked people in J&K to boycott upcoming polls: Omar Abdullah

National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday stated that although his party has decided to boycott the upcoming municipal and panchayat polls, it has not asked people to stay away from voting.

"An election which won't see people's participation is being considered to be an election by the Centre and what can we say over it? Neither we have asked people to not participate or boycott the elections nor we are running any such campaign. We have just said that our party won't take part in it. Whether the government chooses to go ahead or not is for the government to decide, but the fact is that two major political parties of the state are not taking part in it," Abdullah stated.

Abdullah demanded that the Central government must clear its stand on Article 35A. He further added that all political parties in the state are "on the same page" with respect to Article 35A.

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"We have demanded that Centre must clear its position on 35A but it hasn't done it so far. Hence, we do not know on the next hearing on January 9, what kind of defence will be put forward in favour of this. As much as 35A is concerned all parties of the valley are on the same page. The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) MLAs from Jammu have publically spoken in favour of 35A. The NC has made it clear that until we get an assurance on this issue, we won't be taking part in these municipal and Panchayat elections," he said.  

(With inputs from ANI)