Jammu, Feb 22: Any political alliance or third front without the Congress cannot fight the BJP, J&K Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti said on Tuesday, accusing the saffron party of “shaking the basic foundations of the country by its divisive policies”.
She said the assembly elections are part of the democratic process and holding it in Jammu and Kashmir is not a favour to its people.
“Without the Congress, no alliance or third front can succeed in defeating the BJP. The Congress has played a pivotal role in building this nation over the past 70 years and there is no alternative to the Congress in the country,” she said, winding up her five-day tour of Jammu province.
Reacting to the reports about Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s bids to forge an anti-BJP front ahead of the 2024 general elections, Mehbooba said what the Congress and other governments build over the past seven decades is being sold by the BJP which needs to be dislodged in the “interest of the country”.
“It is not possible without the Congress. No third front or any alliance, minus Congress, can defeat the BJP,” she said.
On Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the J&K assembly elections will be held within six to eight months of the completion of delimitation exercise, the PDP president said the election is a normal activity in a democratic setup but “the BJP government is behaving like it is going to give a big favour to the people by holding the polls”.
“Election is a routine process in a democracy which should happen without any delay. There is no need to give much hype to it. By holding the elections, they are not doing any favour to the people of J&K,” she said.
Mehbooba said the interim report of the delimitation commission has caused an uproar across Jammu and Kashmir as all the parameters under which the exercise should have been conducted were thrown to the winds.
Quoting the interim report which the delimitation shared with its five associate members — three of the National Conference and two of the BJP — the PDP leader said there are some constituencies which have 70,000 voters, while some have two lakh voters.
“They were supposed to carry out the exercise on (2011) census which is not evident,” she said, adding the BJP-led government is stubborn and one does not know if the commission will address the concerns of the people and make necessary changes in its report.
“Over 750 farmers died during their agitation for revocation of three central farm laws which were finally revoked ahead of the state assembly elections. When they are making a decision, they feel it is something unalterable,” Mehbooba said.
She said India is a country of all its citizens irrespective of their religion, creed and caste but “they want to turn it into (Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin) Godse’s country”.
“There is a need for all opposition parties to come together against the BJP which is shaking the basic foundations of the country through polarisation and divisive politics,” she added. She also alleged that the BJP wants to end the (secular) identity of the country by following the “RSS agenda” and sidelining the Constitution.
“What the BJP is doing is going against the interests of the country. Different countries have started advising us on what is happening which is badly harming us,” she said, in an apparent reference to the hijab issue. (PTI)
