Sees hope in high voter turnout

NC will emerge as single-largest party again: Omar

26/11/2014

Srinagar: Seeing a hope in high voter turnout in the first-phase assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said people turning out in large numbers to cast their votes should not be necessarily seen as anti-incumbency wave.
"Experts who would like to suggest a high turnout means anti-incumbency should look at the Lok Sabha polls where low turnout cost us all three seats (in the valley)," Omar wrote on microblogging site Twitter.
The 15 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which went to polls today, saw a high voter turnout of 71.28 per cent.
"Can't have it both ways - low turnout = anti-incumbency & high turnout = anti-incumbency. I'm glad people have voted and hope this continues," Omar said.
"I wonder how long it will be before someone gives the credit for the high voter turnout to the BJP," the chief minister said.
Chief Minister and NC Working President Omar Abdullah Tuesday said that National Conference was poised to prove armchair commentators and biased voices against J&K completely wrong by emerging as the single largest party in the ensuing Assembly Elections on the basis of historic development initiatives taken by the National Conference-led Government in the last six years. The NC Working President, while addressing public meetings in Kupwara, Langate and Kulgam on Tuesday said the elections of 2014 were similar to the elections of 1977 where National Conference attained a spectacular majority in the State Assembly in stark contrast to perceptions that had been engineered ahead of the polls. "In 1977 Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was unwell and bedridden and all our enemies with their stooges and vassals in tow, united against us in their ambition to weaken the State's special status and to erode Article 370. You elders, my fellow brothers and sisters handed these enemies of our State a categorical defeat in 1977 and I am certain that today when it is your chance to bear the flag of Kashmir's Dignity, you will ensure a repeated of 1977 and make National Conference victorious", Omar Abdullah said.
Lashing out at opposition PDP, Omar Abdullah said that Mufti Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti had ruthlessly and shamelessly exploited the Kashmir Issue and its allied human sufferings to score partisan points by mining bleedings hearts for votes. "They remember the Kashmir Issue when they are either sitting in the opposition or when elections are around the corner. When they were in power they not only forgot the Kashmir Issue but sabotaged all possible pro-Kashmir measures and stands that the Legislative Assembly could have taken. They repeated this obstructionist behavior when they were in the opposition as well. Today they speak about Afzal Guru. The fact is that Afzal Guru's legal fight started and ended while Mufti Sayeed was the Chief Minister. Guru was indicted, convicted and sentenced to death during Mufti Sahab's tenure with Congress in J&K and while Congress was in power at the Center. Neither did Mufti Sayeed nor did Mehbooba Mufti utter one single word for how Afzal Guru's case was treated while they were in power. They remained mum due to their insatiable appetite for the CM's chair. Today if anyone within J&K's polity is answerable to the people of Kashmir about Afzal Guru's case it is none other than Mufti Mohammad Sayeed", Omar Abdullah further said while addressing the public meetings in Kupwara, Langate and Kulgam.
"While PDP might have a lot of black money, they don't have a single honest face to offer to the people of J&K. They have not only filled their party with ration thieves, urea conmen and land-grabbers but have also ensured that every retired bureaucrat with a background of corruption lands in PDP and is rewarded with a mandate. Then there is the story of PDP's open flirting with dreaded SOG pioneers and stalwarts who take pride in announcing how many Kashmiri youth they have killed with their own hands. One such SOG stalwart was garlanded by Mufti Sayeed in Kupwara and was welcomed into the part as a 'Senior Leader'. Days later after huge public outcry over PDP cozying up to SOG and Task Force operatives, Mehbooba Mufti contemptuously disowned a man her father garlanded in front of the people. While who is right - Mufti Sayeed or Mehbooba Mufti remains a question unanswered, one thing is absolutely clear and that is PDP's infatuation with dreaded SOG pioneers and tormentors of our youth", Omar Abdullah added.
Omar Abdullah also expressed amusement at how Kupwara's Peoples' Conference had gone from being an ad nausema moral pontificator to plunging to the completely opposite political pole of aligning with the RSS, a turnaround that seemed unimaginable in a place like Kashmir. "A vote for PC would not merely be a vote for the BJP but for the RSS itself, whose leaders were brazenly welcomed by PC throwing to winds the sentiments and apprehensions of the people of Kashmir and an act that has gone in contradiction of whatever they have said in the past", Omar Abdullah said while stating that PC had become a political vassal of the RSS and the people of Kupwara should be conscious of elaborate plans that were being hatched to sell their future off for personal political ambitions.
The public meetings were also addressed by Senior NC Leaders Mir Saifullah, Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan, NC candidate for Langate Assembly Segment Wali Mohammad Mir and NC candidate for Kulgam Assembly Segment Imran Nabi Dar, besides various senior office bearers and functionaries of the party.

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