Baramulla, May 2: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the Baramulla parliament constituency, Fayaz Ahmad Mir on Thursday said that National Conference (NC) President Omar Abdullah should spell out reasons for breaking the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) before Lok Sabha elections.
Talking to reporters after filing his nomination papers for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat in the office of Returning Officer (RO) Baramulla, Mir said Abdullah must have come under pressure from Delhi or somewhere else which forced him to break the PAGD alliance.
“The way Omar Sahab has been talking for the past few days, I feel he must have been under pressure from Delhi or somewhere else due to which he broke the PAGD,” he said.
Mir said that he would not be surprised by anything Abdullah has to say after witnessing the massive support of people in south Kashmir and central Kashmir for the PDP President Mehbooba Mufti and the party.
“Instead of saying that PDP is at No 4, Omar Sahab should now reveal why he broke the PAGD alliance and what are the secrets behind it,” he said.
Mir said that Sajad Lone and Abdullah were the only two people who broke the PAGD. “People know this and they also know the cause for which PAGD was made. Everyone knows what each party has done after the August 5, 2019, episode,” he said.
About the competition in north Kashmir’s parliament constituency, Mir said both of his opponent leaders Lone and Abdullah had received support from “different parties”.
“Sajad Sahab is very strong now because big leaders of other parties have joined him. Everyone knows that the BJP also supports him. Earlier, Deen Muhammad Cheetah used to be BJP’s candidate here but BJP has no candidate here,” he said.
Mir said that Abdullah also had a strong alliance behind him including Shiv Sena and Congress. “But our party (PDP) believes in Allah’s support and the people who are with us,” he said.
However, he castigated the NC saying that Shiv Sena, which had announced support for NC was the lone party which supported the BJP on the day of the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35 (A).
“So today, when Shiv Sena is supporting NC, Omar Sahab should ask them why they supported BJP first and now are supporting NC. Why didn’t they save Article 370,” Mir said.
He said that post August 5, 2019, PDP was brutally targeted and party leaders were forced to quit but expressed hope that people would give a befitting reply on May 20 (the day of voting) to express their happiness at BJP’s decision taken in August 2019.
“In this election, if someone in north Kashmir will vote for Sajad Sahab, it will directly go to Modi. So, if Sajad Sahab wins, it means people are happy with the 2019 decision,” Mir said.
So far around 19 candidates have submitted their nomination papers to the office of the Returning Officer (RO) Baramulla parliamentary constituency.