Anantnag, Apr 29: The People’s Democratic Party resides in the people’s hearts, former Chief Minister and PDP President Mehbooba Mufti said on Monday.
Addressing gatherings in the Dooru area of south Kashmir’s Anantnag district amid the continuous rainfall, she said, “What happened to us in 2019 and the events that followed will pass. This campaign isn’t for assembly elections. This election isn’t about trivial matters, neither is it a fight between the National Conference, Congress or PDP. This election is a battle against the decision made in 2019 regarding J&K, a decision the people do not support.”
Responding to a question about whether the people of south Kashmir will put their trust in PDP again, Mufti said, “This is not about south Kashmir. There is a wave that PDP resides in the people’s hearts.”
“Maybe for the time being, people are disappointed with us, but people believe that PDP disbanded the ‘Task Force,’ ‘Ikhwan,’ and ‘POTA’ and helped people come out of miseries,” she said, adding, “Apart from it, PDP started a new brand of development by the Late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed; opened roads to Pakistan; dialogue process; a process to resolve the Kashmir issue; released prisoners from jails.”
Mehbooba said that today thousands are lying in jails and no one is speaking. “Our land, power projects, we have darkness here, and we pay 100 times more, and we get less, while our electricity is transferred to the whole of India. Unemployment is at its peak, and no one is speaking about it,” she said.
The former CM added, “People believe PDP is lying in their hearts, and what one or the others are saying, I don’t want to fall into this. People believe that by voting for PDP, they will send a strong voice to parliament who will speak about these suffocating voices of the valley.”
Mufti, while addressing a gathering in Dooru, appealed to them to support her not just for herself but to convey to Indian leaders that the decision they took in 2019 isn’t acceptable to Kashmiris.