SRINAGAR — Senior Congress leader Salman Soz Friday said the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was still a part of the INDIA bloc at the national level even as the regional party is contesting the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls on its own.
He also said the BJP wants to create divisions in Jammu and Kashmir and turn it into another Manipur.
“They are pitting brothers against brothers and that is why Manipur is burning and they want to burn J&K as well,” he told a press conference here.
Soz said all parties which are not with the Congress or INDIA bloc in J&K are with the BJP.
“The INDIA alliance contested the election in West Bengal, but Mamata’s party (Trinamool Congress) was contesting on its own and we were on our own. In Punjab, the AAP and we were contesting separately,” he said.
“We are together at the national level and the PDP is also with the INDIA alliance at the national level because our fight and struggle are between INDIA alliance and BJP-RSS and its proxies,”Soz said.
“The PDP is a part of the INDIA alliance, but they are contesting separately because they have their own strategy and we cannot dictate them on their strategy,” he added.
CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami is also a member of the INDIA alliance, Soz said, adding all others are with the BJP in one way or the other.
On Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks that the people of Jammu will form the government in J&K this time, the Congress leader said it is as if the people of the Valley do not matter to them.
“They are saying this because they think they can consolidate the vote in Jammu through division, by pitting brothers against each other, and then fragment the vote in Kashmir by fielding proxies, independents and smaller parties. But, I want to tell them the people of J-K are together,” he said.
He said the BJP wants to create division and make J&K like Manipur.
“This is their politics. They are pitting brothers against brothers and that is why Manipur is burning and they want to burn J-K as well. But, the people here will not allow that as they are united. They are waiting for the elections and I am sure NC-Congress will form the government in J&K,” Soz said. — (PTI)