NC to go it alone in Assembly elections

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 6

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Thursday announced that his party would go it alone in the next Assembly elections and would not have any pre-poll alliance.

“Running a coalition government is like walking with crutches, when you can’t work for the betterment of people,” Farooq said.

The NC president was speaking at a function in Sher-e-Kashmir Bhawan here after paying tributes to BR Ambedkar on his death anniversary. 

“We will have to fight the upcoming elections on our strength and will not join hands with anybody. Our party men should be ready for this. I ask you to give us full mandate so that we are be able to perform and deliver like how I did between 1996 and 2002 when the NC had a full majority,” said Farooq.

“I have seen how difficult it is to run a coalition government. It was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who took along 23 parties at the Centre to run a coalition government,” he said.

However, he said, that for the Lok Sabha elections the NC and other parties were coming together to save the country and the Constitution. “We are trying to come together for the betterment of the nation. To save the nation and the Constitution, parties will have to come together and form the government at the Centre and give a strong Prime Minister,” he said.

He hoped that once a strong government came at the Centre, the Kashmir issue would be solved. “Going by the intentions of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, after the Lok Sabha elections when a strong government is in place, I am hopeful that the Kashmir issue will be solved.”

Without naming the BJP, the NC president termed the incumbent government “Daku (thief) Number One”.

PM Modi should be tolerant: Farooq

Farooq Abdullah had a piece of advice for PM Narendra Modi. He  told him to be tolerant like former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The PM should not get involved in petty issues and should have tolerance and accept others, he said. “The British divided the country into two parts and if the incumbent government tries to adopt the same approach, our country will get divided into many parts.”