Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday accused BJP of making repeated promises on restoring the Union Territory’s statehood without fulfilling them. Addressing a National Conference rally ahead of the party’s ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest over the statehood demand, Abdullah also alleged that the BJP gains power in states where it fails to secure a majority by exploiting divisions within ruling parties.“PM Modi has always promised that Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood will be given at the appropriate time. What will be the right time? First, you did delimitation. They want to get more seats through that. You (BJP) have broken so many parties. See Maharashtra, see West Bengal, see Punjab! BJP is a backdoor party. Where they can’t get power through the front door, they try to get through the back door,” Abdullah said, as cited by PTI. Abdullah said the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood would not be a favour but the fulfilment of a commitment. He said the promise was made not only to the National Conference but to all political parties that contested the 2024 Assembly elections.“Restoring the status of a State is not a favour to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. A promise was made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir regarding this. In this promise, it wasn’t just the National Conference that was involved; this promise includes all those parties that contested the elections nearly one and a half years ago,” he added. Continuing his criticism of the BJP, Abdullah said every BJP candidate had promised the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood while campaigning for the 2024 Assembly elections, and challenged the party to identify any candidate who had not made that commitment. “Show me even a single BJP MLA who, while addressing the public during the 2024 elections, said that they would not let Jammu and Kashmir become a State again. Show me even a single BJP candidate, whether in Jammu or in Kashmir, who did not say in their speech during the elections, ‘Give votes to the BJP, and we will restore your Statehood status’,” he said.The chief minister said the party frequently reminds the National Conference of its election promises while ignoring the commitments it made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.“They never get tired of counting our promises, whether inside the Assembly or outside it. Their leaders remember our promises very well, but they fail to remember their own promises! They don’t remember the promises they made themselves,” Abdullah added. Following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, the Centre reorganised the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that statehood would be restored once the situation normalises.In 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370 but did not rule on the restoration of statehood, noting the Centre’s submission that statehood would be reinstated at an appropriate time.The development comes a day after Abdullah accused BJP of trying to bring down the National Conference-led government by engineering defections. He alleged that MLAs were offered between Rs 20 crore and Rs 30 crore, ministerial positions and assurances of statehood in return for switching allegiance.