3 min readSrinagarMay 1, 2026 05:58 PM IST
Days ahead of the assembly poll results in four crucial states – West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam – Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said that votes are being “stolen through the Election Commission and the Special Intensive Revision” of voter rolls.
“Aaj chori EVM ke zariye nahin ho rahi hai. Aaj chori election commission ke zariye, SIR se ki ja rahi hai (today votes are not being stolen through EVMs; today they are being stolen through the election commission and SIR),” he said.
Terming the election in West Bengal a “challenge”, Omar said, “If this affects results, this will be dangerous for all of us. They have attempted to rig elections by removing voters from voter lists and we have to be careful of this.”
After the annual Darbar Move, the seat of government will formally shift from Jammu to Srinagar on Monday. Omar inaugurated a government project at Sempora in Pampore and was speaking on the sidelines of the function at Srinagar.
Commenting on a question about unemployment in J&K, he said the solution is not in the government sector. “No one can deny that unemployment is a big issue in J&K. However, the resolution is not in finding government employment. There is no country or any state in our country that has resolved this problem only through government employment,” he said.
Omar added that the government will adjust those it can within its own ranks, but “our endeavour is to strengthen the private sector”. In this, he said, the NC government “has extended soft loans and grants to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to the youth under Mission Yuva to establish their units”.
He said that efforts are also being made to boost the agriculture and horticulture sectors, among others.
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With regard to the opposition PDP’s allegations that the J&K government removed the need-to-know Urdu requirement from revenue-related posts, the chief minister denied them and accused the PDP leadership of “selling lies” to the people.
“There is no dropping of Urdu. This party and its leadership are lying. Show us the order under which we have dropped Urdu. They have only shown the order under which we have sought public comments,” he said.
Omar underscored that as an elected government, it is their responsibility to seek feedback from the people. “There is a difference between seeking public comments and dropping a subject. That file is still on my table; I have not accepted it. I am not saying there is no such proposal from the department, but I do not intend to accept it,” he said.
