BJP Files Complaint against Farooq Abdullah for Violating MCC in Anantnag Seat

The complaint by BJP worker Sheeraz Ahmad Lone states that the National Conference (NC) president had apparently violated the model code of conduct (MCC) by invoking Pakistan in an election campaign speech in the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat.

Srinagar: The BJP has filed a complaint against Jammu and Kashmir former chief minister and National Conference (NC) president for violation of model code of conduct (MCC) by invoking Pakistan in an election campaign speech in Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat.

Sheeraz Ahmad Lone, a BJP worker from Kulgam district, has filed the complaint against Farooq Abdullah before the Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC) and sought action against him and his party National Conference.

While campaigning for his party's parliament candidate from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, Mian Altaf Farooq had said that Pakistan should stop terrorism and then India and Pakistan can hold dialogue for resolving their issues. He said this while addressing a public meeting in Mehdhar area Poonch on May 19.

Farooq had also said that the international committee should investigate the killing of former sarpanch in south Kashmir if the government of India doesn't order probe. His comments had come in the backdrop of the killing of a former BJP sarpanch Ajaz Ahmad Sheikh in Heerpora area of Shopian and attack of tourists in Pahalgam in which two tourist were injured.

Sheeraz in his complaint mentioned that Abdullah has spoken against the sovereignty of India and made Pakistan as party to the electoral exercise in Kashmir.

"Farooq Abdullah is trying to mobilise voters and seeking and legitimising foreign influence over India electoral process. Such a public position in the given context of Pakistan's known Kashmir policy and its practice over the years is highly questionable because it amounts to full or partial endorsement of Pakistan's policy and Pakistani interests pertaining to Kashmir," Lone has mentioned in the complaint, a copy of which lies with ETV Bharat.

He further said that Abdullah had violated the oath he and his party nominee had taken to preserve and protect the sovereignty and integrity of India. He said, "Making Pakistan a part of open electioneering is also problematic because it amounts to dog whistling to Pakistan that its interests would not only be preserved and protected but furthered from within the Indian state itself."

"..seeking international investigation is open defiance and rejection of the Indian constitutional and legal system and the known position of Farooq Abdullah and his party. It is akin to proclaiming that if the outcome of the highest constitutional adjudication authority is not as per its wishes, it would reject the Indian state by seeking redresal from extraterritorial foreign powers," he said.

The Anantnag-Rajouri seat is slated for polls on May 25. NC candidate Mian Altaf is pitched against former chief minister and Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and Apni Party's Zaffar Manhas. As many as 20 candidates are in the fray and more than 19 lakh voters are registered to cast their votes.

The constituency was spread from Anantnag in Kashmir to Poonch in Jammu division after the 2022 controversial delimitation.