Boycotting 2018 panchayat polls mistake, says Farooq after re-elected as NC President

Party demands Assembly election in J&K, BJP terms its drama

Srinagar: National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Monday said boycotting the panchayat polls in 2018 was "a huge mistake" and the party must contest every future election in Jammu and Kashmir.
Abdullah also warned the government and the security forces not to interfere in any election process. "I want to tell the party that boycotting the panchayat elections (in 2018) was a huge mistake. Remember this, we will not boycott any coming election. Instead (we will) contest and win them," Abdullah said while addressing the party's delegate session where he was re-elected unopposed as National Conference (NC) president.
Abdullah was elected the party's chief at the NC's delegate session held here after party leaders offered prayers at the mausoleum of NC founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah at Naseem Bagh in Hazratbal on his 117th birth anniversary.
Abdullah, who has served as NC president for nearly three decades after being elected first in 1981, said though he wanted to step aside and let the younger leadership run the party, he was persuaded to continue as "we are passing through a very difficult phase".
Farooq thanked party delegates and said he did not want to continue as the party president.
"I wanted the younger leadership to run the party now because no one knows when the time to leave this world will come. So, I thought about this for many days. But, the party thought it would not be right for me to leave when we are passing through a very difficult phase.
"So, I took their advice and accepted this. But, I told them that you should make preparations for the younger leadership to take over. We have to bring the youth forward. The youth men and women are the power of this party and it is imperative to make them stronger," he said.
Referring to his son Omar Abdullah's announcement that he would not contest elections as long as Jammu and Kashmir remained a Union Territory, the senior Abdullah said, "As party president, I am telling you (Omar Abdullah) that you have to contest the election."
"Because if we have to fight them, then we all have to jump into the fray and contest elections," he added.
The former Union minister said the BJP "will do anything, even make attempts to buy your loyalties, but God will fail all their designs".
Abdullah also warned the security forces and the government not to interfere in the elections in Jammu and Kashmir and said "let people decide whom to vote for".
"Otherwise there will be such a storm, which you will not be able to control," he said.
Abdullah also threatened to launch an agitation in case such a thing occurred.
"We will be ready to sacrifice our lives. Farooq Abdullah will be the first to start an agitation over it," he said.
The last NC presidential elections were held five years ago.
NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said only Abdullah's nomination was received till the last date of filing papers. A total of 183 proposals from Kashmir, 396 from Jammu and 25 from Ladakh were received in support of Farooq Abdullah, the party said.
The former union minister was first elected NC president in 1981 when his father Sheikh Abdullah was the chief minister. Before the 2002 assembly polls, Farooq Abdullah's son Omar was elected the NC president as the senior leader wanted the younger generation to take up the mantle.
Omar stepped down in 2014 and his father was once again elected the president. He has remained the party president since.
During a party meeting recently, Abdullah had expressed a desire to step down from the post owing to his health. The party then set the presidential election process into motion and said the new president would be elected at the party's delegate session.
It said the party's internal elections had already been concluded. However, the party persuaded Abdullah to lead it for another term.
Congratulating Farooq Abdullah on his re-election, Omar said his father earlier decision not to continue as party president had not only surprised them but caused them a lot of tension.
"He announced it without any discussions. We were heartbroken, we lost our mental balance, because he was leaving us in such a situation where we have to take the fight forward and take the state out from the morass...when we have to fight the injustice done to us on August 5, 2019 and prepare the party for the forthcoming tests," Omar said.
"After that day, I was continuously persuading my father," he said. "If you (Farooq) do not want to remain the party president, then the NC will not have any president. Do you want the NC to function with a president?"
Omar said the party has to learn a lot from the experience of its president.
He said other leaders in the party will have more responsibility and assured his father that they will take his message to every corner of J-K.
Reacting to the development, the Jammu and Kashmir BJP said Abdullah's reelection as the National Conference chief shows the party is confined to dynasty politics "which has no place in J&K".
JK BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur NC election was all a mere drama, "rather a pre-planned move to gain media attention".
"Dynasty rule yet again. Re-election of Dr Farooq Abdullah as National Conference president shows party confined to dynasty politics which has lost ground and faith among people of J&K. No place for family rule and dynasty politics in J&K," he said.
Meanwhile, Democratic Azad Party Chairman and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Monday congratulated National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah after his re-election as his party's president.
Azad prayed for the good health of 85-year-old Abdullah and his long spell in the politics of Jammu and Kashmir.
"I congratulate Abdullah for being re-elected as NC president. Since he has again been elected as party president, I am sure Jammu and Kashmir politics will thrive and will expand the democratic space," Azad said in a statement here.
Updated On 12/6/2022 11:44:29 AM