National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Friday warned people against boycotting the forthcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. He said a boycott will help the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported.

“If the trend of Parliamentary polls continues in the Assembly elections, then there will be a BJP MLA from Tral,” referring to the BJP’s lead in Tral Assembly segment in Anantnag in the Lok Sabha elections, due to poor voting. “Imagine, there will be a BJP MLA from the same Tral where from [Hizbul Mujahideen commander] Burhan Wani and Zakir Musa were if there is a boycott.”

Later, Abdullah claimed that he did not intend to praise the dead militants. “I did no such thing,” he said on Twitter in response to media reports that he praised Wani and Musa. “I was talking about how people should not boycott elections. I mentioned that Tral, which gave birth to Burhan & Musa, also gave the BJP a lead in the LS elections because of a boycott. I was pointing out the strange contradiction of this. How is this praise?”

“I get that there is a design to create a certain narrative around me & my party which suits the ruling establishment & while I expect no better from the north korean channels I would expect channels like yours to use your own minds rather than reproduce the line that is given,” he added.

Meanwhile, BJP Working President Jagat Prakash Nadda mocked Abdullah during a press conference in New Delhi, ANI reported. “Stance of these parties is more concerned with their politics rather than country, it changes from time to time,” Nadda said. “It’s [the] same party that said they will boycott panchayat elections and then took part.”