STATE TIMES NEWS
Srinagar: National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah on Monday said the country belonged to all and not just the people belonging to a single religion adding there will be far reaching consequences if it ceases to remain so.
The NC president, who filed his nomination papers on Monday for the bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, was addressing workers belonging to his party and ally Congress.
“This country belongs to all of us and not just (people from) a single religion. Till this country belongs to all, we will be with it. God forbid, if it does not remain so, then God knows what storm will come,” Abdullah said here.
He called upon the youth to take up the mantle of saving the state and the country.
“Whether I live or not, the young leadership has to save not only Jammu and Kashmir, but the whole of India and Pakistan. Jammu and Kashmir cannot be saved until there is friendship between India and Pakistan and for that they have to work together,” Abdullah said.
Acknowledging that the “elections will be tough”, Abdullah, a former Union Minister, sought Congress support in Srinagar and NC’s complete support for the Anantnag bypoll.
As part of a seat sharing arrangement, the NC would contest the Srinagar bypoll while Congress will fight from the Anantnag seat. The Congress has named its state president Ghulam Ahmad Mir as the candidate from Anantnag. He added that if the two parties succeed in the bypolls, they would “try to awaken the conscience of the people inside the Parliament”.
“You have to make us successful so that when we enter the Parliament, we will try to awaken their conscience. We will tell them that the grave you are digging for us, you might yourselves fall into it. We want to get rid of the violence, we have seen enough of bloodshed. Other states are reaching the sky, but our state has been sunk,” he said.
The by-election to Srinagar constituency has been necessitated by the resignation of Tariq Hamid Karra from the Lok Sabha in September last year in a mark of protest against alleged “brutalities” on protesters.
He defeated Abdullah in 2014 Lok Sabha polls while contesting on a PDP ticket.
Karra, who recently joined Congress, is not contesting the polls this time following a seat-sharing agreement between National Conference and his new party.
Congress is contesting the South Kashmir Lok Sabha seat where Pradesh Congress Committee president G A Mir will take on PDP’s Mufti Tassaduq Hussain, brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
The polling in south Kashmir is scheduled for April 12.
Abdullah was accompanied by his son and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, party leader Ali Mohammad Sagar, JKPCC chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Congress leader MP Tariq Ahmad Karra when he filed his nomination papers.
Meanwhile, Nazir Ahmad Khan from Peoples Democratic Party alno filed nomination for Srinagar Parliamentary seat which is going to poll on 9th April, 2017.
Both the candidates filed their nominations before the Returning Officer for Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency.
The total number of candidates who have filed nominations for Srinagar Constituency has reached four.
