Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 20 : Former Chief Minister and working president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah today accused PDP and BJP of engineering communal polarization of votes and spreading fear in the minds of people during the recently held Assembly elections.
“In Kashmir Valley and the Muslim dominated areas of the Jammu region, especially the Chenab Valley, PDP generated an atmosphere of fear psychosis about BJP and RSS trampling and mutilating their distinct identity to garner maximum votes but later joined them as per prefixed game-plan”, he said while welcoming merger of the J&K Unit of Samajwadi Party, led by its president Sheikh Abdul Rehman, into the National Conference fold.
Omar said that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed did not tell to his voters even once during his pretended anti-saffron campaigning that PDP was going to forge an alliance with BJP. “In fact, he portrayed both BJP and RSS as enemy number one of Muslims and subtly coerced them to vote for his party. After getting 28 seats he virtually threw his party into the BJP lap by dramatizing and delaying the Government formation,” he alleged.
Accusing BJP of bartering everything for the loaves of power, the NC leader sought to known what BJP has gained out of alliance with PDP and with which face they will be returning back to their constituencies after making tall promises.
Omar said PDP and BJP have left the situation polarized in Jammu and Kashmir by causing enormous damage to its secular fabric. “In such a situation it is incumbent upon the secular forces to come together and meet the challenge posed by deceptive, hypocritical and opportunistic alliance,” he said and made a strong pitch in this regard adding that NC would perform its designated role being the secular and forward looking party of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
Elaborating the need for secular forces coming together, Omar Abdullah referred to his party’s support to Congress nominee Ghulam Nabi Azad during the elections to Rajya Sabha and said it was a conscious decision to strengthen the forces believing in inclusiveness of the State. “The decision to support Congress was difficult in the backdrop of opposing each other in the elections but for the overall good of the State and in the larger interest of amity it was imperative”, he asserted.
Welcoming Sheikh Abdul Rehman and Samajwadi Party office bearers at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan, Omar described the former a veteran legislator and parliamentarian who has immensely contributed towards the development and prosperity of Jammu and Kashmir in different capacities. He described the joining as good omen for the secular forces across the State.
In his address, Sheikh Abdul Rehman claimed hat he was privy to at least dozen of instances where PDP had fielded candidates to cut Muslim votes for benefitting the BJP. Such a vicious politics, he said, was not conducive for Jammu and Kashmir.
On the occasion, Sheikh Mohammed Shafi, Amrit Varsha, Pushpa Dogra, and other senior leaders of Samajwadi Party also joined NC.
Two time legislator and a former MP, Sheikh Abdul Rehman had been the State president of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, now the BJP.
NC provincial president Devinder Singh Rana and several other senior leaders were present on the occasion.
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