Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday hit out at Governor Satya Pal Malik over the latter’s sudden decision to dissolve the state Assembly on Wednesday. Speaking to mediapersons, the National Conference veteran said that he had hopes from the Governor, but he “turned out to be another slave of the Centre”.
Terming the development in Jammu and Kashmir as “sad”, the former chief minister demanded that the post of Governor should be looked into.
“I had a lot of hopes from this Governor, but this is very sad. He has turned out to be another slave of the Centre. The post of Governor needs to be looked into. Why did he wait 5 months to dissolve Assembly?” said Farooq Abdullah.
Justifying the alliance between the parties who have traditionally been arch rivals, the veteran leader said, "When PDP was in alliance with BJP then it was not 'terror-friendly?' It has become 'terror-friendly' when it talked of alliance with NC and Congress?"
This came hours after Farooq Abdullah’s son and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah also lashed out at the Governor, asking him to prove his allegations of horse trading of MLAs in the state.
Addressing a press conference earlier on Thursday, the Abdullah scion said, “The Governor has accused us of horse trading. Now that you've admitted receiving complaints of MLAs being bought, tell us who's behind all this? Who's giving all this money? People deserve to know answers.”
The Governor has, however, justified his decision to dissolve the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, claiming that a stable government was impossible in the state because of the “coming together of political parties with opposing political ideologies”.
A political row was triggered in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday when Governor Malik issued a notification to dissolve the Assembly shortly after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti declared that she would stake claim to form government with the support of the National Conference and the Congress party.
Expressing shock at the decision of the Governor, the PDP supremo had on Wednesday tweeted, “In my twenty six year old career as a politician, I thought I had seen it all! But like they say never say never! Nevertheless, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to @OmarAbdullah and @Ambikasoni4 ji for helping us achieve the seemingly impossible.”
Mehbooba said that the “grand coalition” had given “jitters” to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government. “Since the past five months, regardless of political affiliations, we shared the view that the state assembly be dissolved immediately to avert horse trading & defections,” she had tweeted.
