Omar’s MLA poaching claim met with BJP’s Rs 100 crore defamation suit threat

3 min readJul 13, 2026 11:17 AM IST

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Deputy CM Surinder Kumar Choudhary during a public rally titled "Delhi Chalo! We Want Our Statehood", at Maharaja Hari Singh Park, in Jammu. (PTI Photo)

The BJP on Monday shot a legal notice to J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, demanding that he either provide concrete evidence to substantiate his allegations of “poaching” against the BJP or issue a public apology.

Addressing party workers, the chief minister had said on Saturday that the BJP was attempting to engineer defections within the ruling National Conference and had offered between Rs 20 crore and Rs 30 crore to a Jammu MLA through a lawyer affiliated with the national party.

The BJP has stated that if Abdullah fails to provide evidence to support his allegations or does not apologise, it will initiate a Rs 100 crore defamation suit against him for his remarks.

Terming the allegations baseless, the notice from the state unit chief, Sat Paul Sharma, seeks an apology from the CM within seven days and a “cease and desist” order to prevent repetition of the claims of alleged “poaching”.

On Saturday, Abdullah had lashed out at the BJP government at the Centre, adopting an increasingly confrontational tone. “They are designated to the back seats, and that’s where they will remain,” he had said.

The remarks come ahead of the NC’s statehood protests in Delhi on July 20. The party has invited several national leaders for the statehood protest, including Congress’s Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, TMC president Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay, and others. He has also extended invitations to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

On Sunday, Omar addressed party workers in Jammu, stating that the protest at Jantar Mantar to mount pressure on the Centre to restore statehood would mark the beginning of a “new method” since “enough time was given to the Central government to fulfil its promise”.

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“We pursued the restoration of statehood for nearly two years, giving enough time to the central government to fulfil its promise made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Omar told the gathering at Maharaja Hari Singh Park in Jammu city, his first major public meeting in the BJP stronghold. “Now, we will start resorting to ‘a new method’ for it from July 20 onwards when we raise slogans for restoration of statehood at our dharna in Delhi,” he said.

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Naveed Iqbal is a Senior Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, and reports from Jammu and Kashmir. With a career spanning over 15 years in frontline journalism, Naveed provides authoritative reporting on the region’s transition, governance, and the socio-political implications of national policies.

Expertise

Regional Specialization: Based in the Srinagar and New Delhi bureaus, Naveed has spent over a decade documenting the unique challenges of Jammu and Kashmir. Her reporting is distinguished by deep contextual knowledge of the region's post-Article 370, statehood debates, and local electoral politics.

Key Coverage Beats: Her extensive body of work covers:

Politics & Governance: Tracking the National Conference (NC), PDP, and BJP dynamics, including in-depth coverage of J&K’s first Assembly sessions and Rajya Sabha polls following the reorganization of the state.

Internal Security & Justice: Providing rigorous reporting on counter-insurgency operations, terror module investigations, and judicial developments involving political detainees and constitutional rights.

Education & Minority Affairs: Highlighting systemic issues such as quota rows in J&K, public service commission reforms, and the challenges faced by minority communities. ... Read More

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