Srinagar: National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said that no one can predict which party will lead the next government in Jammu and Kashmir, or who will be the next chief minister.
The three-time former chief minister also said that it would be premature to make assumptions about a next chief minister because the votes are yet to be counted and the election results have not been declared.
“Let me tell you one thing even if you have a full majority, you cannot say who is going to be what and what’s going to happen. I am going to wait till the votes are counted on October 8,” Farooq Abdullah told media here when asked if he was certain that NC will form the next J&K government with a majority.
He also said that the exit polls are something “I have never believed in, and never will!”
The NC leader said the people of J&K voted against the BJP, and his party would not form an alliance with a party that has caused so much suffering to the Muslims in India by demolishing their homes, mosques, schools and businesses, and by doing all in its power to persecute them.
When asked whether extending the interim bail of AIP chief Er Rashid will be some factor in government formation in J&K, he said, “I don’t see any factor but whoever stands with BJP will shoulder his own coffin sooner or later!”
“Listen we are not going to ally with BJP, because the people of J&K voted against them in the just concluded assembly elections. They (BJP) persecuted Muslims by demolishing their homes, mosques, schools and businesses and is doing all its power to persecute them,” said the NC leader when asked if BJP could form the next government with his party if the election results threw up a ‘fractured mandate’.
“There’s not a single Muslim minister in the NDA government—how many Muslims did they give the mandate for parliamentary elections?” he questioned.
How difficult would it be to choose the chief ministerial candidate in light of the electioneering by the top Congress leadership, which includes Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the parliament, and his sister Prinyanka Gandhi Vadra, Abdullah said “We are jumping the gun; let’s first see the results, then they will sit down and decide who is going to be the CM and who is not….”
As far as the next Haryana government formation is concerned, the NC leader said that considering the sufferings the people of Haryana had to bear at the hands of the BJP, the Congress would be the ones in charge.