National Conference leader Omar Abdullah’s suggestion that there should be status quo on the constituencies already held by the INDIA members when the seat-sharing deal is discussed for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls has cast a cloud on the Gupkar Alliance that is fighting for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party, the other main constituent of the Gupkar Alliance, feels Omar’s proposal, made at the INDIA bloc’s Delhi meeting on Wednesday, was a ploy to throw it and the other members of the Jammu and Kashmir grouping out of the political arrangements here.

The National Conference holds all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir, which is the PDP’s main area of influence too.

Although both parties are unlikely to leave the national alliance, the Gupkar axis could face a crisis if Omar took an inflexible stand, sources said.

“We remain committed to the INDIA bloc but we are not clear how we can go along in the Gupkar Alliance following Omar’s suggestion,” a PDP veteran told The Telegraph.

While the NC holds all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir, the BJP has two seats in Jammu and also the Ladakh seat.

Omar, talking to reporters after the INDIA coordination committee’s first meeting in Delhi on Wednesday, said he had proposed that the seats already held by “INDIA block members should not be open for discussion”.

Sources told this newspaper that Omar’s remarks left PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, who was part of the meeting, seething, although she chose not to react for the sake of the “sanctity” of the alliance.

“Omar’s proposals are completely unacceptable to us. They are shutting the door for negotiations with us, ignoring we were the last ruling party here,” the PDP leader, requesting to remain anonymous, said.

NC chief spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said Omar was clear that INDIA members alone can surrender seats, if they chose to. Another NC leader said: “Let us talk Jammu, Ladakh. Why should we give up our seats?”

Asked whether it threatens the future of the Gupkar Alliance, he said the Jammu and Kashmir grouping was never for electoral politics, but the larger goal of restoring Article 370.

The PDP leader who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “We will contribute our every bit for the INDIA bloc and it goes against the spirit of the alliance to go public with our opposition, although the NC has. But the fact is that the PDP and the NC have the same political constituency (in Kashmir and the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu and Ladakh). In the Jammu and Udhampur (seats), we don’t have much stakes.”