The 55-year-old Mehbooba Mufti is toiling it hard to regain South Kashmir constituency which her party lost by a thin margin in 2009 elections. She has earlier represented the constituency between 2004 and 2009. Speaking to The Pioneer in her bulletproof SUV during a canvassing in Kulgam district, she exuded confidence that she would win the polls as people were fed-up with the coalition Governments in the State and the Centre. Excerpts:
How confident are you of winning the electionIJ
I don’t know what would be the margin but I am pretty safe. The last time I won, I don’t remember how many candidates against me lost their deposit. The anti-incumbency factor, both against the Central and State Government is also in our favour.
Is your party in secret alliance with the BJPIJ
It is the National Conference (NC) that gave legitimacy to BJP and forged alliance with them. We have said thousand times that we will not have any tie-up with the BJP. To work with a party or alliance, you don’t have to be part of it. We were not in alliance with the BJP but in spite of that we were able to persuade Vajpayee to adopt the pro-Kashmir policy.
Your focus is on Assembly polls rather than Parliamentary pollsIJ
Both elections are our focus. I don’t have any specific information on the outcome of polls but the projections indicate there is going to be a change.
How do you see the boycott call of the separatistsIJ
People have understood that boycott helps the NC only. Unfortunately, we see NC people are pelting stones and raising azaadi slogans. We have no issues with Hurriyat’s boycott call, they issued it in our tenure also but our apprehensions are that the official machinery is misused to enforce poll boycott.
What are the issues you highlight during campaigningIJ
The biggest issues are unemployment, corruption and adequate ration for all.