Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti tore into the National Conference and Congress alliance which the two parties stitched for the ongoing assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, blaming the two parties of "bringing tragedies to Kashmir whenever they joined hands".
Mehbooba, who was speaking at an election campaign rally in Srinagar, while referring to "these two parties" (NC and Congress), said that whenever they joined hands, Kashmir got engulfed in tragedies.
"When Mufti sahab strengthened Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Sahab and Rajiv Gandhi signed the Farooq-Rajiv accord and demolished Congress. And soon after hanged Maqbool Bhat. In 1987, the two parties contested assembly elections together and when they felt they were losing, they resorted to massive rigging which bred militant commanders like Yasin Malik and Syed Sallah u Din," she said.
"After 1987, we know what happened. Kashmir became a place for graveyards, widows and fathers had to shoulder coffins of their sons. It was the result of the NC and Congress alliance and their rigging of elections," she said.
Mehbooba's PDP was a member of INDI bloc and attended its two meetings in Mumbai and Bihar before the parliament elections. However, she didn't attend the later meetings of the bloc when NC and Congress shared five parliamentary seats of Jammu and Kashmir and didn't accommodate PDP in the seat sharing arrangement.
Mehbooba was today in Habbakadal assembly constituency of Srinagar's downtown to campaign for her party's candidate Arif Laigaroo. The young party activist has been nominated the PDP candidate who will be contesting against National Conference’s two time women legislator Shameema Firdous.
Mehbooba accused the National Conference of neglecting the Srinagar city during their governments.
"The National Conference was in government for forty years - from Sheikh Abdullah to Omar Abdullah - and I was chief minister for two years. NC should explain to the people of Srinagar what it did for the people of the city. I will also explain what I did for the city when I was chief minister and when my father was chief minister for three years and 10 months," she said.
Mehbooba claimed that PDP will be the number one party in South Kashmir where elections were conducted on September 18.