The BJP on Wednesday criticised the National Conference (NC) for “unleashing a false campaign” against the party for fielding Kashmiri migrants as candidates for the urban local body elections in the valley.
BJP’s state spokesman, Brigadier Anil Gupta (retired) said that unable to digest the success of BJP candidates in the ongoing elections, NC is resorting to “false propaganda” to provoke and mislead the electorate.
He said that the NC has not changed its mindset about the Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to leave the Valley in 1989 when the government headed by Farooq Abdullah failed to look after their security and their lives were under constant danger due to threats from the extremists.
“Living in exile in Camps in Jammu, they were dubbed as ‘migrants’. Today, when the Kashmiri Pandits are exercising their democratic right and contesting ULB elections, NC has unleashed a false propaganda that BJP is fielding only migrant candidates and ignoring the locals which is far from truth,” Gupta said.
He clarified that BJP has fielded only 36 migrant candidates while rest are all locals belonging to Kashmir.
“True to its style of politics, NC is trying to create a communal divide by twisting the facts,” he alleged.
Gupta added that BJP was the first political party to welcome the elections and had announced that it would field candidates in all constituencies.
He claimed that Farooq Abdullah, who had announced his party’s participation in the elections, threw in the towel sensing imminent defeat by announcing boycott of the elections.
“A level-playing field was offered to all but the fear of defeat forced the Abdullahs to announce boycott,” asserted Gupta.
Exposing the NC’s double game, Gupta took the party leadership to task for backdoor meetings with PDP for government formation.
“Nothing has changed with regard to the Article 35A for which these parties announced the boycott but lust for power is compelling them to once again ditch the Kashmiri people for their personal gains,” said Gupta.