National Conference’s Mehdi threatens to quit; Jammu’s Ikkjutt Party protests

National Conference leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has said that if his party agrees to fight elections even without restoration of Article 370, he may have to take the extreme measure of parting ways with the NC.

Mehdi, a popular Shia politician and three-time legislator from central Kashmir’s Budgam district, said that he does not have much expectation from the meeting of J&K political parties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


“I don’t want to give any credibility to unconstitutional and illegal decision made on August 5 and 6 of 2019,” Mehdi told ET. He is awaiting the final decision of the NC on participation in elections. “I will fight till the last moment. When the party decides on elections and if it doesn’t go as per my stand, natural consequences will follow…I will not accept what happened on August 5, 2019, as fait accompli,” he said.

“For the first time in the last 18 years, I wasn’t part of any consultation in the party…in the last virtual working committee meeting of the party both Farooq Sahib and Omar sahib were irritated by my stand on issues,” said Mehdi. “In the party meeting I realized the ground was being prepared for the elections and I raised some objections against it,” he said.

In a related development, the Ikkjutt party in Jammu held protests at several places against the meeting, terming it as a black day for the region. “By engaging with the Gupkar gang the BJP has compromised its ideology and failed the people of Jammu and the whole nation…they are trying to appease the international community by compromising on national interest,” said Ankur Sharma, Ikkjutt’s Jammu leader.

Sharma said that the BJP hasn’t taken the decisions of August 5, 2019 to a logical conclusion and neglected different shades of opinion from Jammu in this meeting.

“Overwhelming majority demands separate state for Jammu, but BJP has also started playing to the tunes of Kashmir based politicians,” said Sharma.