Kashmir polls

BJP no force to damage NC prospects in Kashmir polls: Rather

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 4:

The National Conference, even in the backdrop of the Amarnath land agitation, doesn’t see the BJP as a force that can damage its poll prospects in Jammu.

The BJP projected the NC as a Kashmir-centric party and alleged that the latter worked against the interests of Jammu during the two-month-long agitation. Talking to The Tribune, former finance minister and senior NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather said in fact the party played a significant role in ending the stalemate over the land dispute.

Rather said: “We reject communal and regional politics and ours being a secular party, we are committed for the equitable development of all the three regions. We have envisaged a planning mechanism in our recently released vision document.”

When asked how the NC would counter BJP’s campaign, he said: “We don’t need any strategy to counter divisive politics. The finance commission is already in place and once the state planning commission was set up it won't be possible for any government to discriminate with any region.”
During the coalition rule, there had been enormous increase in socio-economic and political problems of the people and now they desperately want the NC back, he claimed.
Party’s provincial president and former minister Ajay Sadhotra said people know about real culprits responsible for the Amarnath land dispute. Instead of raising fingers on others, the BJP should better do some soul-searching, he said.
He said the BJP has already been under fire from its own workers and it should better set its own house in order. As far as we are concerned people would be apprised about party policies and programmes and they would decide about what actually they want.