Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made it clear on Monday that there would be no alliance between the National Conference and the BJP in the coming days.

There was neither any scope nor any need for such an alliance with the saffron party, he said emphasising that they have vastly different thoughts.

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Replying to questions from media persons before commencement of the budget session of the J&K Assembly, Omar Abdullah said, “We are not talking about any alliance with the BJP, neither is there any scope, nor the need. Our thoughts also do not align. If we talk about J&K, our thoughts are vastly different. We will hold discussions on everything during the session.”

The CM was reacting to hints about a possible alliance dropped by a BJP legislator RS Pathania.

Omar further reiterated that key concerns, including the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, would be actively deliberated during the ongoing budget session of the Legislative Assembly.

Meanwhile, during obituary references in the Assembly, Omar praised former prime minister Manmohan Singh, highlighting his contributions to India’s economic growth and development of Jammu and Kashmir. “Manmohan Singh ji was born in undivided India. He went to Oxford and Cambridge and started as an officer and finance minister and then PM. When he became finance minister, our country was going through an economic crisis. Today we are the biggest economies of India. Today, the private sector is developing as the license raj was stopped. As PM, he took Indira Awas Yojana, MGNREGA initiatives,” Omar Abdullah said.

He recalled Manmohan Singh’s farewell press conference and said, “Manmohan, in his last press conference, said, ‘History will be a better judge of me than contemporary times.’ All world leaders respected him.”

He further recounted an incident showcasing the former PM Manmohan Singh’s humility, saying, “I remember I wrote a letter to him on some issue, and I gave an interview on that issue. But I didn’t mention the letter, there was an issue that protocol has been broken. He called me and said This is not right; you addressed the issue in the press. I told him I have not done that but after 15 minutes, he called back and apologized. He was the PM, and didn’t need to do so.”

The chief minister also stated that former Pakistan president General Pervez Musharraf and Manmohan Singh had made significant progress in resolving the Kashmir issue.

Highlighting the infrastructure projects initiated during Manmohan Singh’s tenure, Omar said, “Working groups were constituted, and for Kashmiri Pandits, jobs were created, and they went back to Kashmir. Everyone talked about the return of Kashmiri Pandits, but Dr. Manmohan Singh gave them jobs by providing reservation in employment. He mentioned that during Manmohan Singh’s tenure, residential colonies were also built for Kashmiri migrant Pandits”.

“Dr. Manmohan Singh started the four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. Today when the railway is reaching Kashmir, the credit also goes to Dr. Manmohan Singh, but he is not here to witness this day. It was started during Manmohan Singh’s time, and he started work on the world’s highest railway bridge,” Omar added.