CM Says No Truck With BJP, 'Sonia is like my mother'

SRINAGAR: Working president of National Conference, Omar Abdullah said Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was like his mother. “Sonia Ji is like my mother. I can’t comment anything about her. I can’t even talk anything about Rahul Gandhi,” he said.

Abdullah, who is also the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir,however, launched an attack on senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. “Let us see Azad’s track record. Except the tulip garden and Hajj House, Azad could do nothing for Kashmir. If Azad had done anything for the people, his seats in 2008 elections would have increased from 2002, not reduced,” he told media persons after addressing a gathering here.

The chief minister said Azad’s war of words against him speaks of the Congressman’s frustration levels. “Azad knows that his base is shrinking in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Abdullah, who was also MoS external affairs in then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government in 1998, said that his party will not have any alliance with the BJP. “The National Conference will never have any relations with a party like the BJP which forces Muslims to become Hindus,” he said.

“We don’t impose our religion on anyone, but BJP tries to force their religion on us”, he said.

Abdullah said Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to portray a picture as if he was the only PM to have addressed a rally in Srinagar to portray things in a way as if he is the only Prime Minister who addressed a gathering in Srinagar. He said that the BJP would not get a single seat in the Kashmir valley and this was clear during the PM’s visit. “The rally proved a big failure for BJP. I came to know that as Modi started walking towards the dais, people accordingly moved out from the venue,” he claimed.

The chief minister said that it was hardly a matter of concern for Jammu and Kashmir as to which party was governing at the centre. “Every state has to work with the centre. Modi also worked with the Manmohan Singh led UPA government when Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat,” he said.