Chief minister Omar Abdullah on Friday alleged the BJP would not let his government function smoothly until it assumed power in the Union Territory, the comments coming amid a rise in acrimony fuelled by the Bengal election results.

Omar suggested that certain remarks by leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma —who has purportedly claimed an Eknath Shinde would emerge from the National Conference — implied the BJP wanted to split his party to try and grab power in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharma, widely seen as a loose cannon, has been bragging about the BJP’s victory in Bengal, suggesting Jammu and Kashmir is the next target, and attacking Omar relentlessly.

“I say it repeatedly that LoP Sahab is by his statements proving that unless the BJP gets the government here, they will not allow (us) to work smoothly and they will not make Jammu and Kashmir a state,” Omar said.

“It’s obvious that LoP Sahab is desperate to occupy the chair of Jammu and Kashmir chief minister. I want to tell LoP Sahab, there is no Eknath Shinde in the National Conference. National Conference MLAs are stubbornly with the National Conference.”

Shinde had split the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in 2022 to form the state government with BJP support.

Sharma recently said that Jammu and Kashmir was the BJP’s next target and that the party had been making plans for it for more than a year. He later “clarified” that the National Conference was on ventilator because of internal issues and denied his party was working to destabilise it.

On Friday, Sharma claimed the National Conference would split if the Jammu and Kashmir government attempted a cabinet expansion.

“This shows you the motives of the BJP. (They want) Aaya Ram Gaya Ram. Eknath Shinde emerged because the BJP helped him move out,” Omar said.

He said his government had refrained from expanding the cabinet not out of fear but because Jammu and Kashmir had not been given back statehood.

The chief minister said those who had voted for the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir should know that Sharma and his party were engaging in
the politics of blackmail and that people were being intimidated in the context of the statehood demand.

He said the controversial delimitation exercise undertaken by the central government in Jammu and Kashmir in 2022 was aimed at benefiting the BJP and its allies, appearing to deride the party for failing to win the last election despite such measures.

Omar said there was no justification for the Tamil Nadu governor to stop TVK leader Joseph Vijay from forming the government.

He underlined that the Supreme Court had made it clear that in a hung House, the leader of the single largest party should be given an opportunity to form the government.