The ruling National Conference and Opposition People’s Democratic Party have entered into a battle of mudslinging and berating each other ahead of the Assembly elections due in November. The fresh spat erupted after the PDP accommodated a former police officer and a known banker to its fold.
“Your detractors are out to put all hurdles in your way. They want to damage National Conference. This has been their long desire but like in the past you teach them a lesson again and put down their castle of ill designs to the ground,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told a gathering in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
He castigated the PDP for its ‘bizarre’ behaviour of making the party safe castle for the elements having corruption charges and bad reputation. He said that this has punctured the balloon of falsehood of PDP crying hoarse against corruption. He said by inducting elements with charges of corruption in the party fold and allotting tickets to them speaks volumes about the lust of the party to grab power by hook or crook. He said they cannot fool people who know everything what is being cooked to divide them for power politics.
Abdullah actually referred to the recent entries into the PDP at a time when the party is issuing list of its candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. Former provincial head of police’s crime branch Raja Ajaz Ali and former Jammu and Kashmir bank chairman Dr Haseeb Drabu joined PDP. While Ali was declared party’s candidate from Uri constituency, Drabu is likely to be fielded from Wachi segment of south Kashmir.
Interestingly, Drabu was shunted out of J&K Bank during Omar Abdullah’s tenure.PDP president Mehbooba Mufti sought to offset the CM’s tirade against her party and blamed the ruling party of being the “fountainhead of corruption” in the state. “Omar Abdullah government has a lot to answer on corruption issue and if he had not deactivated the institutions like State Information Commission (SIC) and State Accountability Commission (SAC) most of the skeletons would by now have tumbled out and some leading lights of the government could have met the fate of A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi”, she said at a party gathering in Pahalgam.