Srinagar, Sept 15 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that he is sure of the loyalty of National Conference (NC) MLAs as he dismissed speculations of instability within his government in the Union Territory.

He told reporters that he has complete faith in the MLAs of NC and said the critics spreading such rumours were acting at the behest of the intelligence agencies based on the Gupkar Road.

Interestingly, Omar Abdullah was alluding to the Central Intelligence that is headquartered on the Gupkar Road in Srinagar.

The Chief Minister dismissed speculation about instability within his Legislature Party, saying that he has complete faith in the NC MLAs and does not fear any of them betraying him.

He attacked unnamed critics, whom he accused of working at the behest of agencies based on Gupkar Road.

Asked on the sidelines of an event at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) in Srinagar whether he feared some of his party MLAs could be poached, Omar Abdullah said, “Do I count my party 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 that he knew the identity of those fuelling speculation about the Jammu and Kashmir government’s stability, alleging they were a couple of people who collected envelopes (of money) from the offices of agencies on Gupkar Road and had approached him for adjustment immediately after the NC government was formed in Jammu and Kashmir.

“These people who are doing this, 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 (NC) government was formed asking me to adjust them somewhere,” Omar Abdullah added.

Claiming that he had refrained from speaking out to save their dignity, the Chief Minister said that those now counting NC MLAs were the very individuals he had refused to accommodate in his government.

“Now, to save their respect, I do not open my mouth. They came to my office. Because I did not give them a job in my government, now they start writing this,” he added.

Talking about political commentators critical of his administration, the Chief Minister attributed their hostility to personal self-interest, saying they had turned to social media against the Union Territory government after being denied government accommodation.

“Here are those commentators who do not get a government house, so they use social media against the J&K 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,” Omar Abdullah said.

There have been speculations that Omar Abdullah was delaying the reshuffle of the Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet because he feared betrayal from those party MLAs, who would not get berth in the reshuffled Cabinet as many MLAs presently out of the Cabinet were expecting elevation as Ministers in the Omar Andullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government.

–IANS

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