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In a statement on Monday, Baramulla MP Sheikh Abdul “Engineer” Rashid said non-BJP parties should not form government in Jammu and Kashmir till statehood is restored. This call was made before vote counting whose outcome the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) said it would decide on whether to join a “secular front”. This incidentally brings us to Rashid himself, who was recently released from Tihar Jail, and who stands accused of being an agent provocateur of the BJP to fragment the vote against the BJP. While Rashid will fight in the Lok Sabha elections against heavyweights Omar Abdullah and Sajad Lone, his party is not likely to show the same kind of strength in the Assembly polls.
During the press conference, Rashid emphasized that the elected government would be a lame duck without statehood. He call on the INDIA bloc partners and other parties to focus more on the restoration of statehood than forming the government. He called the Gupkar Alliance including the NC and PDP as ‘directionless’ since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
The NC leader, Omar Abdullah said Rashid was an accessory to BJP’s strategy to extend the central rule beyond the deadline. In response, Omar tweeted, “The man goes to Delhi and comes back to suit the BJP’s purpose”.
On the same side, the PDP’s leader Iltija Mufti took time to explain that the final word on the creation of a new secular front will depend on the senior leaders of the party in the coming days rather than in the present election period.
Rashid is free with bail until October 12.
