J&K Peoples Conference President Sajad Lone on Monday accused both National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party of orchestrating a “fixed match” that ultimately enabled the BJP to secure a Rajya Sabha seat despite their “facade anti-BJP posturing” during the 2024 Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Lone referred to revelations made through an RTI regarding the absence of a polling agent during the Rajya Sabha elections and questioned Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over his subsequent remarks linking PDP’s conduct to BJP’s victory.
“The agent’s job is that the member shows the vote to him and then casts it. It was revealed in an RTI that they did not keep an agent. This means that all three members cast their votes according to their own will, because there was no one to check,” Lone said.
Questioning the Chief Minister’s claim of learning about the matter only after the RTI surfaced, Lone remarked, “Is it true that a sitting Chief Minister found out from an RTI The Speaker is yours, the Secretary is under your government, from the security guards to the top, everything has been placed by your government. You didn’t know until today that an agent wasn’t kept.”
He argued that the arithmetic of the Assembly itself exposed what he described as political collusion.
According to Lone, after accounting for BJP’s numbers and his own vote, the remaining legislators possessed enough strength to comfortably secure both seats through a balanced distribution of votes.
“Where did these eight come from? And how did these eight make them win? Some rejected their votes, and some voted for the BJP,” he said, maintaining that one side intentionally avoided appointing an agent while the other side conveniently chose silence.
Appealing to journalists, Lone said, “During the election, you asked me 20 times a day if I was the BJP’s B-team. Now go ask them who the BJP’s real B-team is.”
He also said the outrage seen against the BJP during the campaign was missing when the same parties, according to him, helped the BJP secure victory.
On the issue of outsourcing in Jammu and Kashmir, Lone accused the government of systematically dismantling public employment by transferring thousands of government jobs to private agencies.
Referring to a reply received in the Assembly, he claimed that nearly 22,000 to 24,000 positions had been outsourced, involving expenditures of approximately Rs 1,000 crore annually.
He cautioned Mehbooba Mufti against conflating outsourcing with backdoor appointments and remarked that outsourcing was “a million times more poisonous than a back-door appointment.”
“This will totally destroy the youth here,” Lone warned, arguing that traditional government jobs once enabled upward social mobility for economically weaker sections. He observed that drivers, peons and clerks previously had opportunities for promotions and could educate their children to become engineers or civil servants, whereas the new system had effectively trapped workers in perpetual insecurity.
“Now, if you were a peon, you will remain a peon. They will give you only as much as you can barely eat; no child of yours will go for tuition,” he said.
Lone alleged that outsourcing companies were extracting substantial profits while underpaying workers.
According to him, the government disburses far larger sums per employee than what actually reaches workers on the ground.
“The company gives them Rs 13,000 while the government gives much more than that Rs 20,000 or Rs 25,000. Five is their profit; where the rest goes, you also know,” he remarked, terming the system “a den of corruption.”
He further questioned the lack of oversight regarding outsourced employees, stating that despite thousands of personnel being deployed, there was little accountability regarding their actual postings and functioning.
Particularly criticising the outsourcing of functions under the Mission Vatsalya Scheme, formerly known as ICPS, Lone expressed concern over handing sensitive child protection responsibilities to poorly paid contractual workers.
“How could they outsource the innocence of the children?” he asked, while explaining that the scheme dealt with issues such as protection of minors from abuse, juvenile justice and child welfare in a conflict-affected region
