Mehbooba Mufti: NC, PDP being stopped from canvassing to help BJP ‘proxies’

Srinagar, May 9

Former J&K Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said the BJP was leveraging its power to prevent the NC and the PDP from campaigning in order to support its “proxy” parties.

She added that the proxy parties of the BJP in the region were being promoted and funded by the BJP. “This is why the election in Rajouri-Poonch has been rescheduled. There are reports of people in Rajouri being threatened that if BJP proxies are not voted for, a situation similar to 1947 will be repeated,” she said.

Mehbooba said the NC was also not allowed to hold a rally and she herself was not permitted to go to Tral. “These actions are intended to aid the BJP’s proxies,” the PDP chief said.

Mehbooba said the sudden encounters in South Kashmir and Pir Panjal were strange as they had started taking place when the government was claiming that militancy had ended in the Kashmir. “Why have these encounters started taking place? Do they (the BJP) want people to get frightened and boycott the polls?” she said.

Parra issued notice over ‘referendum’ remark

• The J&K Election Department has issued a notice to PDP’s Srinagar candidate Waheed Parra for asking youngsters to consider the General Election as a “referendum” to send New Delhi a “message”
• In a speech, Parra had recently said that a message needs to be conveyed to New Delhi that “people’s silence here should not be construed as their contentment”
• Parra on Thursday said he owed allegiance to the Constitution of the country and by using the word “referendum”, he wanted to ask people to come out in large numbers to vote