Omar Abdullah bats for statehood before elections
By: Muzamil Bhat CK
Srinagar
After meeting the Prime Minister in the all party meeting National Conference leaders on Saturday said that they have conveyed to the central government that for holding the elections they will have to restore the statehood first.
Omar Abdullah while talking to media said that Ghulam Nabi Azad has spoken in the meeting on behalf of all of them and has conveyed to the Prime Minister that they will have to restore statehood first before holding the polls.
Omar said that the sequence should be after the delimitation exercise is completed the central government should restore the statehood before holding the election.
He said that all of them have said that without the restoration of statehood they will not participate in the elections if the centre holds them as union territory.
According to the news agencies quoting Omar Abdullah, “Not only Mehbooba Mufti but Farooq sa’ab also said that it took 70 years for BJP to succeed in their agenda of abrogation of Article 370. We won’t back off from our mission, even if it takes us 70 weeks or 70 months or more time”.
He further said that there has been no fresh approach to the National Conference from the Delimitation Commission.
“As far as the Delimitation Commission is concerned, the party has made it very clear – they have authorised Doctor sa’ab (Farooq Abdullah) to take a view as and when necessary. There has been no fresh approach to the National Conference from the Delimitation Commission,” Omar Abdullah was quoted as saying.
“We were not called there (at PM’s all party meet) as an alliance. Had that been the case, only one person from the alliance would have been invited. We did not say anything at the meeting that is outside the agenda of Gupkar Alliance,” said National Conference vice president to the media on Saturday.
