Srinagar, July 12 -- Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of attempting to break the National Conference (NC) by offering its MLAs Rs.20-30 crore and ministerial positions to switch sides. However, the BJP denied Omar's allegation, terming it "baseless". Speaking on his grandmother's death anniversary, Abdullah also targeted the central government for failing to restore J&K's statehood, claiming the BJP used the promise of statehood restoration as leverage to poach legislators. "There are attempts to break the NC. The BJP is telling our MLAs in closed rooms to join them, and in return, they will grant statehood. Allah is my witness, one of my Jammu MLAs told me this. A BJP leader, 'who is a Supreme Court lawyer, told my Jammu MLA that they would offer Rs.20-30 crore, a ministry, and statehood if he/she joined them'. They think that people's convictions are weak. On this stage, you won't find a single person who is ready to sell his/her 'Iman' for even Rs.100 crore," Omar told a gathering of his party workers and leaders, including NC president Farooq Abdullah. The allegation was denied by the national executive member of BJP and the party's former J&K chief, Ravinder Raina. "This claim is baseless, misleading, and devoid of facts. If the CM has any proof, it should be placed in the public domain," he said. Omar said that his party decided to go for protests at Jantar Mantar for statehood restoration after multiple attempts over the past 20 months to convince Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah failed. "The central government should introspect as to why we are going to protest at Jantar Mantar less than two years after government formation. For the past 1.75 years, I put my political reputation at stake and told the Centre that we want to achieve our rights through dialogue not through force. I knew that this would politically weigh against me. We know that people are content here when we fight with the centre. I wanted to give a chance to the Centre about the promise they made with us," he said. Omar said that he had never remained silent on the demand for statehood. "I never missed a single opportunity to seek the restoration of statehood. I talked about statehood when the PM came to Sonamarg and Katra. None of my discussions with the PM, Shah, or any other senior leader went by without me raising the demand of restoration of statehood. After every meeting, I am told that they are working on it," he said. "When questions are raised in Parliament or the media ask, the response comes that 'it will happen at the appropriate time'. I want to ask when will that 'appropriate time' come? If your 'appropriate time' for statehood restoration is based on the condition of BJP's government formation in J&K, then have the courage to say it openly," he alleged. Omar alleged that BJP leaders, particularly here in the assembly, have started saying openly that J&K won't get statehood. "Why wasn't such a thing said in the Supreme Court? Why didn't you say that until there is a BJP government in J&K, statehood won't be restored here? In the SC, you said that you would follow a three-step process: delimitation, election, and statehood restoration. Delimitation happened, and then elections took place. Now, what is our mistake? Is it that the people of J&K handed over the responsibility of the government to us?," he alleged. Omar also pointed out the dichotomy in the Centre's reaction to J&K and Ladakh demands. "If you are ready to talk to Ladakh, why aren't you ready to discuss the same issues with us? You tell us that there should be 'one country, one precedent,' and that 'that is why Article 370 was removed.' However, in Ladakh, you talk about invoking Article 371. The same BJP people who are ready to give Article 371 to Ladakh tell us that we won't even get statehood," he alleged....