Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 25: Asserting that Jammu and Kashmir will never have a BJP Government, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti today expressed readiness to support the formation of any “secular Government” in J&K to keep the saffron party out of power.
“There will be a secular Government in J&K and whatever Government is formed here, PDP will be an important factor,” she told reporters on the sidelines of an election rally here.
Responding to a query on whether she would join hands with the National Conference for Government formation, she said: “Our aim is to keep the BJP away from power. The PDP will support the formation of any secular Government in Jammu and Kashmir to keep BJP away.”
Asked about the BJP’s claim of securing over 50 seats and picking up a Chief Minister “from the Jammu region”, she replied, “They have their own Lieutenant Governor and Prime Minister. What have they done for Jammu all these years? If they project a Jammu CM as an alternative, they should have appointed a Governor from Jammu. The BJP won’t even cross the 15-seat mark.”
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“Why isn’t there a single Advisor from Jammu? During our tenure, the DGP and Chief Secretary were from Jammu, but today, all these positions are held by outsiders,” she questioned, while dismissing BJP’s promise of appointing a Chief Minister from Jammu as “hollow and misleading”.
Campaigning for her party candidates in Bisnah, R S Pura, and Jammu, Mehbooba criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for labelling the Mufti family as anti-national and blaming them for the rise of terrorism.
“They come here to criticise us. They have nothing to offer to the people. Whose opposition are they leading? Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s party, the same man who, since the 1960s, has upheld India’s flag high in Kashmir,” she said.
“When the National Conference campaigned for independence and talked about joining Pakistan, it was Mufti Sahab who upheld and raised the Indian flag in Kashmir. And now, they call his party anti-national,” the PDP chief said.
Highlighting issues of unemployment, depression and drug use in Jammu and Kashmir, she also lashed out at the Government’s electricity policies and the allocation of contracts to “outsiders”.
PDP chief blamed the National Conference for the rise of terrorism, alleging electoral fraud in 1987 prevented the formation of an alternative Government in Jammu and Kashmir which, she said, led the Kashmiri youths to take up arms.
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