The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference on Thursday said that it will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the Union territory alone.

"As far as seat sharing is concerned, I want to make it clear that the National Conference will contest elections on its own strength,” party president Farooq Abdullah said at a press conference. “There are no two opinions about it. There should be no questions on this anymore.”

The National Conference is a member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or the INDIA bloc – a coalition of 28 Opposition parties that plans to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the general elections.

Despite this, the party will not agree to any seat-sharing arrangement with its INDIA bloc allies including the Congress or the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party.

Abdullah made the announcement three days after the Enforcement Directorate summoned him for questioning in a money-laundering case pertaining to alleged irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association.

“I am not scared of the Enforcement Directorate,” Abdullah said on Thursday. “If they think that by arresting me they can finish the National Conference…the National Conference is a movement. It is not run by some Farooq Abdullah’s favour.”

Responding to Abdullah’s announcement, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the members of the INDIA bloc are still holding talks regarding seat-sharing agreements, reported ANI.

“Every party has its own limitations,” the Rajya Sabha MP said. “But the National Conference and the PDP [People's Democratic Party] have been part of INDIA bloc and will remain so.”

Thursday’s announcement comes after the Aam Aadmi Party, also an INDIA bloc member, said that it will contest the Lok Sabha polls alone in Punjab. In January, another INDIA bloc member, the Trinamool Congress, had announced that it will contest the general elections alone in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.