Srinagar: National Conference vice president, Omar Abdullah, who is contesting from Ganderbal and Budgam assembly segments, Sunday took a dig over BJP saying, the party has nothing in Kashmir and it won’t get anything here.
He was responding to reporters who asked why top BJP leaders are not campaigning in Kashmir the way they are doing so in Jammu.
“What will it get from Kashmir? It has nothing here. Everyone is well aware of the BJP’s attitude towards Muslims. Sixteen per cent population of the country is Muslim and they (BJP leaders) could not find even one who would be good enough to be made a minister at the Centre. When there is no representation for this population, we know what kind of thinking they have towards Muslims,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah was speaking to the reports during shikara rally in the Dal lake in support of the party’s Zadibal candidate Tanvir Sadiq.
He said BJP was desperate to have a hung assembly as it would give it an excuse to extend the lieutenant governor’s rule.
“The BJP will want to have a hung assembly so that they get an excuse to prolong the (lieutenant) governor’s rule but people won’t allow it to happen,” he said, adding, it was to defeat BJP’s this design that NC allied with Congress.
He said that The National Conference’s pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections was formed to give people an option to avoid a hung House.
“We could have gone for a post-poll alliance but the alliance has been formed (before elections) to give people an option so that there is no hung assembly and there is no room for doubt that a government will not be formed,” he added.
The National Conference leader further alleged that the BJP was harping on the “rule of three families” in Jammu and Kashmir to hide its failures.
“Jammu and Kashmir has got nothing in the past five years. The BJP has nothing to show. So the prime minister and the home minister are forced to target the three families. If they had done something, they would not need to do this,” he added.
Abdullah also said the government should give a thought to the lower voter turnout this year compared to the 2014 assembly elections in some areas of Kashmir.
“There were some areas where the voting percentage was lower than 2014. For example, the Noorabad (now D H Pora) segment, there was 80 per cent turnout in 2014 but this time it was 20 per cent lower (68 per cent). The present government has to think about why it has happened this time despite there being no boycott and everything, according to them, is normal,” he said.
Asked about Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Kashmir on Monday, Abdullah said it was good and suggested that the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha make a couple of more visits to take on the BJP.
“It is good that Rahul Gandhi is coming. I would want him to come more often to take on the BJP top brass. The prime minister has visited twice, the home minister has visited thrice, (Defence Minister) Rajnath Singh is not tired of visiting, there are other senior BJP leaders coming. Rahul Gandhi should come to boost the morale of party cadres wherever Congress candidates are contesting,” Abdullah said.
