National Conference (NC) vice president Omar Abdullah on Tuesday ridiculed those trying to dub the party’s candidate for the Anantnag seat, Mian Altaf Ahmad, an “outsider” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi hails from Gujarat but contests elections from Uttar Pradesh.

Accompanied by Mian Altaf, Omar was addressing a largely attended rally in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam.

Talking to media persons on the sidelines of the rally, Omar asked; “How is Mian Altaf considered an outsider? He is as much from Rajouri and Poonch as much as he is from Anantnag or elsewhere in J&K. If PM Modi can hail from Gujarat and contest elections in Uttar Pradesh, without TV channels having any problem, then why doubts are being cast on Mian Altaf contesting from Anantnag.

“Leaders from South India get elected for Rajya Sabha from North Indian states and you have no issues with that but when Mian Sahib contests from within Kashmir valley you start raising questions.”

Omar also slammed the media for “attempting to create a wedge” between the INDIA bloc parties — NC and PDP — on the issue of the former having announced Mian Altaf as its candidate for the Anantnag seat.

Replying to a question whether the NC was contesting all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir under the pressure of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Omar denied this and said that the decision to contest the three seats had been taken on the basis of having won the previous elections. We contested the District Development Committee (DDC) elections on the basis of the assembly election results of 2014. Wherever the PDP won, they contested the polls and wherever we had won, we got the chance. The Peoples Conference at that time was also with us and as such they also contested from where they had won the assembly seat. Where does the ED factor into all of this, he asked.

Replying to questions on the issue of the arrest of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Omar said not only us but the powerful countries of the world, too, have taken note of how the opposition leaders are being targeted. Kejriwal is the second chief minister to be arrested by the ED. Arresting sitting chief ministers is “very dangerous for democracy” and the country will have to pay a price for it for a long time, he added.

Omar said: “We hope that the Supreme Court and the Election Commission will not ignore it and will stop the use of investigative agencies against political opponents during the elections”.