With hours to go for the counting of votes in the recently conducted assembly elections, MP and Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) chief Engineer Rashid on Monday appealed to all regional mainstream political parties not to stake claim to form the government unless J&K’s statehood is restored.
Addressing mediapersons in Srinagar, Rashid, who is out on interim bail and accused of terror funding, said “Irrespective of which political party or a group of political parties get a majority after tomorrow’s counting of votes, I appeal to all mainstream political parties including the India bloc, Peoples Conference (PC) and J&K Apni Party to rise above party politics and unite in the larger interest of the people who voted for them.”
“Anyone getting the majority, it would be better if all parties unitedly give the message for immediate statehood to the union government. AIP is ready to cooperate with them in this, irrespective of who will get how many seats in the Assembly”.
National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah has himself said that the elected government in the UT would have less powers than a municipal corporation, Rashid said.
”When elected representatives from both Jammu and the Valley put pressure on Delhi to restore the statehood, they would have no other choice. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already changed the goalpost and it is now our turn to put up a united front to ensure that statehood is restored to J&K,” he said.
Rashid, who was called a “proxy” of BJP by the mainstream parties, said that the Congress remained silent on restoration of Article 370.
He opposed the powers of the Lt Governor to nominate five members with voting rights in the J&K legislative Assembly. “Such nominations always undermine the stature of elected houses,” he said.
He said that the Centre should restore the legislative council if it wants to accommodate its people.