J&K Assembly polls: NC assails Azad, Beig’s volte-face

Srinagar, Dec 13: National Conference leaders on Friday took a jibe at the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Member Parliament Mirza Mehboob Beig for finding all the ills in Chief Minister Omar Abdullah just seven months after they found solace in his company while contesting Lok Sabha elections.

"During electioneering, Azad comforted himself in the company of National Conference and hailed the high degree of discipline in this party and now he takes pride in speaking Utopian language in an unsuccessful attempt to belittle the Chief Minister", the leaders said while observing that chameleons too take some time to change their colours.

They felt that Azad has not yet reconciled with the drubbing he got from the people he considered his loyal constituency and said they could only take pity on him as he has lost the face, not locally but at the national level as well.

In a joint statement, the leaders, however, observed that they were not expecting leader of such a stature speaking street language while addressing to his political opponents.

"For him and his Congress High Command, Omar was a leader with difference before breaking the alliance but now National Conference was just a party responsible for , what he says, the mess the state is in", the leaders said.

The National Conference leaders asked Azad to go down to his memory lane and recall the adjectives he had used for Omar Abdullah and his dynamism. They said the problem with Azad is that he has always found himself alien in Jammu and Kashmir despite having presided over the unsuccessful and fractured government or leading the Congress.

"If he wants to make himself relevant to Congress politics by resorting to malicious campaign against Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, best of luck to him", they said, adding that Azad had put a big question mark about his credibility and long standing in politics. "Unfortunately, Azad has not risen to his stature", they maintained.

On the ‘wagging tongue' of Mehboob Beig, the National Conference leaders felt that little said about the traditional turn-coat, the better it is.

They described him a confused politician who was entangled in his own contradictions. "His political conduct does not deserve any comment", they said.

NC leaders disappointed with Azad, Beig

However, the National Conference leaders maintained that by abandoning his parliamentary constituency and remaining in the cozy environs of New Delhi, Beig had not only betrayed the people of south Kashmir but deceived the party, which always remained in the forefront to solving problems of the people and standing by them in all the circumstances.

The signatories to the joint statement include Provincial President Devender Singh Rana, Minister for Planning & Development, Ajay Sadhotra, Minister of State for Home, Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, Sr Vice President Surjeet Singh Slathia, S. Harbans Singh, Vice President, Rattan Lal Gupta, Peer Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari, Kashmira Singh, Central Secretary Rachpal Singh, Abdul Gani Malik.

Provincial Secretary Sheikh Bashir Ahmad, Legislators Khalid Najeeb Suhrawardy, Aijaz Jan, RS Sharma, Bimla Luthra, Vijay Bakaya, Dr. Shenaz Ganai, Master Noor Hussain, ex-MPs, Mirza Abdul Rashid, Shabir Ahmad Salaria, ex-legislators Gh. Hyder Malik.

It also includes Babu Rampal, Jagjeevan Lal, Brij Mohan Sharma, Mohammad Aslam Khan, Begum Zubaida Salaria, Dr. Chaman Lal Bhagat, Abdul Wahid Shan, Qazi Jalal ud Din, Haji Mohammad Hussain, Satpal Lakhotra, Dhian Chand, Suram Singh, Mohd Iqbal Bhat, Rahim Dad, Bhushan Lal Bhat, Ikhlaq Khan.

Senior party leaders Jugal Mahajan, Gurdeep Singh Sassan, Anil Dhar, Dr. Kamal Arora, Dr. Abdul Gafoor, Taranjeet Singh Tony, Dharamveer Singh Jamwal, S Surinder Singh Bunty, Mohammed Ayub Malik, Rajesh Bakshi and others.