People’s Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday accused the BJP government of empowering proxies in Jammu and Kashmir. She alleged that “the saffron party does not want the voice of Kashmiris to reach the Parliament.”

Talking to media persons in South Kashmir’s Anantnag, Mehbooba said: “The BJP wants to muzzle the voice of the people. The people of Jammu and Kashmir now only have the right to vote to express their desires. Atal Bihari Vajpayee had restored people’s trust in the voting right but the current central government is trying to interfere with it while empowering proxies, its A, B and C teams, in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

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The ultimate goal of the Centre is to suppress the genuine voice of Kashmir, Mehbooba said, adding: “All promises made by the country’s leadership in 1947 were illegally abrogated in 2019, and subsequently, the entire Jammu and Kashmir was turned into a jail. Even my passport and that of my family members were restricted, and my official residence was taken away.”

Mehbooba was responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement wherein he said that the dynastic parties that did not let J&K develop should be wiped out in the Lok Sabha elections.

National Conference (NC) vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah had on Wednesday alleged that New Delhi is again using its full might to defeat the NC in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. However, he said the NC is fully geared up for the polls and is hopeful that the party will win all three Lok Sabha seats of the Kashmir valley as it did in 2019.

Omar was replying to questions of media persons after a meeting of the provincial working committee of the party in Srinagar that was presided over by Dr. Farooq Abdullah.

“This election, the entire might of New Delhi is out to fight us”, Omar said.

Replying to a question, Omar said: “No election is easy. It depends on the circumstances. Presently, New Delhi is resorting to all tactics to overpower us. In the last elections, the NC faced guns and militants selectively targeted our leaders and workers. Despite such adversities, the NC contested the polls.”

Omar recalled that during the regime of his grandfather Late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the Janata Party, local political parties of J&K and religious leaders got united to defeat the NC. This time too the A, B and C teams of the BJP are on the same page and are executing plans against our party.

He added that the parliamentary election is primarily about sending a message to the Centre that the abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019 is unacceptable to us. This is the first major election after that step of the Modi government.