PDP President and former chief minister J&K Mehooba Mufti on Sunday said she will not contest assembly election in J&K.
Mehooba is not alone in the fray. Earlier National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah also announced that his son and former chief minister J&K Omar Abdullah will not contest assembly elections till statehood to J&K is restored.
Interacting with media persons here in Srinagar, Mehbooba Mufti said that participating in the next election was not her priority.
“Those at the helm of the affairs are hell-bent to stifle dissent voice. An atmosphere of fear, hatred and uncertainty has been created in Jammu and Kashmir. In such an atmosphere participating in the election is an important question for me”, ibtimes.co.in quoted Mehbooba as having said.
She said that “attaining power is not my priority. We are fighting to save our very existence because those at the helm of the affairs are trying to destroy our existence”.
Mehbooba alleged that the BJP wants to impose it’s communal agenda in Jammu and Kashmir. “BJP wants to erase the cultural, social, and political identity of Jammu and Kashmir. It is continuously damaging the national constitution”, she alleged.
She also alleged that the present dispensation was running the country with a colonial mindset. “Unfortunately, J&K has become a laboratory for their experiments. Gandhi’s India has become Godse’s India”, she said.