Congress wasn’t good enough for NC in J&K till Mufti Sayeed made it so: Mehbooba

Srinagar, Sep 08: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti Sunday said that the National Conference (NC) forged an alliance with Congress, its nemesis, in the 1980s, only after her late father Mufti Muhammad Sayeed turned the national party into a viable option in Kashmir.

Addressing an election rally in Kokernag assembly segment of Anantnag district, Mufti recalled the time when the National Conference enforced a social boycott of Congress workers in Jammu and Kashmir.

"There was a social boycott. Daughters of (some) Congress workers were divorced ... The barber would not provide his service to Congress workers. But Mufti Mohammad Sayeed organised the party and Congress protested against the rising corruption. Six people were martyred when Farooq Abdullah was the chief minister," she said.

"When Farooq Abdullah realised that Congress is becoming a viable option and will take the place of the National Conference, he put Congress in his pocket (through an alliance) and it is struggling to come out of it to date," she added.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said the alliance between the National Conference and Congress for the 2024 assembly elections is not based on principles but a pact for sharing power.

"If it were an alliance based on principles, then Kokernag would have been a Congress seat. The NC left the seat for Congress but fielded its own candidate as Independent," she said.

Mufti said if her father had not formed the Peoples Democratic Party, the NC would have still been continuing with its "authoritarian" ways.

On BJP leaders targeting the PDP, she said the ruling party at the Centre knows that people are angry with it for abrogation of Article 370.

"The people are angry with them for whatever has been done over the past five years and they also know people will punish them through the ballot. So, they can say anything," she told reporters after the rally.