Srinagar: The National Conference on Monday rejected the “coarse remarks” of Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari against the NC leadership, saying that the remarks reeked of his frustration at being rejected in the DDC polls across J&K.
In a statement, party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said, “It’s ironic that the party which comprises of defectors and who are responsible for engineering defections in political parties is giving lessons on democracy and ethics. The same person who has been serving the underhanded assignments of New Delhi in Kashmir since 1984 has surfaced again to normalise the BJPs unconstitutional actions of Aug 5, 2019. Despite having full support from the powers that be, they were still not able to make a mark in the recent DDC elections.”
He added, “NC was part of a greater NDA alliance, which was an amalgamation of various parties, no less than twenty-four. We were part of a bigger NDA alliance which besides us had many other secular parties within its fold. The alliance was guided by a common minimum programme. Nevertheless, despite being a constituent of NDA, we didn’t allow BJP to set its foot in J&K, not to talk of allowing it to fiddle with our status. We fought elections against BJP in J&K whilst being part of NDA and were notably able to keep them at bay. We didn’t allow them to make inroads into J&K. On the contrary the PAGD alliance led by Dr Farooq sahib was not even allowed to campaign properly. Most of our contesting candidates were kept locked up in hotels. Despite that people gave a clear mandate in favour of PAGD. The DDC results attested to the universal acceptance of PAGD across J&K. Far from accepting the defeat, the team B of BJP is using nasty methods to garb power in Kashmir by hook or crook.”
“The way the King’s Party president is claiming that he will form DDC councils in two to three districts in Kashmir reveal it all. The arithmetic does not support them in any case except by engineering defections. Having failed on that front also, they have now resorted to witch-hunting and intimidation,” he added.

KR Desk