Srinagar: Peoples Conference (PC) candidate, Junaid Azim Mattu, accompanied by Corporators and supporters today filed his nomination papers in Srinagar for election to the post of Mayor of Srinagar at the Office of Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation.
The party has also declared its support to an independent candidate from Habbak, Muhammad Saleem Lone for the post of Deputy Mayor. Saleem Lone also filed his nomination papers today for the Deputy Mayor’s post.
Speaking on the occasion, Senior PC Leader Irfan Ansari said the party is confident that the party will handsomely win the race for the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The senior PC Leader said that the new Corporation would leave no stone unturned to usher the City into a corrective era of balanced growth, urban development and progressive vision.
Taking a dig on PCC Chief G A Mir for his statement that ‘this Mayoral election is a contest between Secularism and Communalism,’ Irfan Ansari said, “In the eyes of the Congress, does being Muslims who aspire to contribute amount to being ‘communal’? We are at a loss how the name Junaid Azim Mattu is identified ‘communalism’ by Congress? Is he not a Muslim or does being a Muslim who challenges the established political make him ‘communal’? We believe in delivering change and serving the people and will persevere to provide an alternative to political monopoly of the tried and tested permutations and combinations.”
Wondering whether lanes, roads, development and progress fell into the ambit of communalism or that yearning to usher into an era of urban solutions for the city of Srinagar falls into the ambit of communalism for the Congress, Ansari said: “These so-called ‘secularists’ who have presided over the worst communal carnages in the country should stop sermonizing and stop constantly concealing their inability to inspire people under the fig-leaf of self-validated isms.”
“It is the Congress party that plunged the State into violence, chaos and anarchy by rigging the elections of 1987 and before that by being the masters of Constitutional Erosions in J&K. All harm inflicted on the State’s special status and on Article 370 has been carried out systematically by the Congress Party. They are the script-writers of all draconian laws that were used in J&K including POTA and TADA. It is a fact that the maximum number of killings of civilians and disappearances of youth happened during the tenures of successive Congress governments at the Center. The Congress party is the unambiguous culprit when it comes to Kashmir and the party should have some bare minimum shame. Their rhetoric is 180 degrees opposite to their murky, Machiavellian and shameful track-record in Kashmir”, said Irfan Ansari.
