Srinagar: National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said the visit of an Election Commission team to Jammu and Kashmir shows the Centre’s willingness to hold assembly elections in the Union Territory.
The three-member EC team led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar arrived here this morning to review preparedness for assembly polls, weeks before the Supreme Court’s September 30 deadline for holding elections in the Union Territory.
“If they were not ready (for assembly elections), I do not think the prime minister (Narendra Modi) or home minister (Amit Shah) and all the other ministers would have announced that elections will take place,” Abdullah said.
“If they were not ready, they would not have said so and that is why the Election Commission is coming,” Abdullah said, responding to a question about the Centre’s readiness to hold assembly elections.
Asked if the polls would change the situation on the ground as the powers of the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor were increased recently, the NC leader said, “We have to watch how that situation unfolds. It’s going to be a state and it can’t be run by one lieutenant governor.
“He is the viceroy of Delhi, and the viceroyship died in 1947. If they want to create new viceroys, then good luck to them,” he said.
Abdullah said Kashmir is the country’s starting point and there will be a problem in all of India if those ruling from Delhi continue with their current policies.
“I warn the other states to be careful. Today, we are on the chopping board, tomorrow, you all will be on the chopping board,” he said.
Asked whether he will be the party’s chief ministerial candidate, he said the NC’s first priority was to win the election.
“First, we must win the election. The party that wins will decide who will be the chief minister. It is a democratic country,” he said.
If given the choice, would he be willing to become the chief minister, Abdullah said, “I do not know. It is a question of time.”
On his son Omar Abdullah losing to independent candidate Sheikh Abdul Rashid alias Engineer Rashid in the Lok Sabha polls, the NC chief said the person (Rashid) chanting pro-freedom slogans emerged victorious which should act as a warning for Delhi.
“It is a warning for Delhi that the man (Rashid) who won… what was his slogan? ‘Hum kya chahtay Azadi’ (we want freedom). So, there is a movement that does not want to be a part of Pakistan or India… let us be honest about it. How much will you hide such things? It is for them to decide,” he said.
The NC lost the Baramulla seat in north Kashmir to Rashid, who is currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail Delhi in connection with a 2017 terror funding case. The party had won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.