Srinagar, Oct 5 (IANS): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday dismissed as “baseless” the assertions of former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah that the government had directed the union territory chief secretary to notify rules of business to make the elected government powerless.

In a post on microblogging site X, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said on Friday that the BJP had virtually accepted its defeat in the J&K elections and that is why the J&K chief secretary had been directed to notify change in rules of business so that the Lt governor became more powerful and the elected chief minister and his council of ministers were rendered more powerless.

“The BJP has clearly accepted defeat in J&K. Why else would the Chief Secretary be assigned the duty to change transaction of business rules of the government to curtail the powers of the Chief Minister/elected government and assign the same to the LG? This information has come to me from within the Secretariat. Officers would be well advised to resist any pressure to further disempower the incoming elected government,” Omar said in his comment.

Dismissing Omar’s statement as a figment of his imagination that had no basis at all, Amit Shah said in his X post comment, “Mr @OmarAbdullah’s tweet is misleading and speculative in nature.”

“There is not even an iota of truth, as there is absolutely no such proposal. The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act of 2019 passed by the Parliament of India provides for notifying the transaction of business rules, and the same was notified in the year 2020. The people of J&K have wholeheartedly supported the efforts of the Government of India to bring in a democratically elected government through the historic free and fair election process in which the citizens participated enthusiastically”.

Meanwhile, the BJP high command on Friday summoned key leaders of the party to Delhi to discuss the formation of government in J&K.

BJP sources told IANS, “The BJP high command has summoned 13 top leaders from the J&K unit for a crucial meeting in Delhi tomorrow to be chaired by party president and Union Minister J.P. Nadda.”

“Those called to attend the meeting include BJP’s election in-charge and Union Minister G. Krishna Reddy, Ram Madhav, J&K in-charge, Tarun Chugh, co-in-charge, Ashish Sood, J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina, Working President Sat Sharma and four General Secretaries of the J&K BJP, Ashok Koul (General Secretary Organisation), Dr Devender Manyal, Sunil Sharma and Vibodh Gupta,” the sources added.

Two former Deputy Chief Ministers, Kavinder Gupta and Dr Nirmal Singh, as well as Darakhshan Andrabi and Devender Rana, have also been asked to attend.

“The meeting will gather feedback on the Assembly elections and develop strategies for forming a government in J&K following the election results. The discussions will also focus on potential alliances with independent candidates who may be likely winners in certain constituencies,” the sources said.

“Ram Madhav has been assigned the job of contacting various parties to explore options for the BJP to establish the next government in J&K. Madhav previously played a key role in the formation of the BJP-PDP alliance government after the 2014 assembly elections,” the sources informed.