SRINAGAR: Additional General Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference (NC), Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal has said his party will in no way support Narendra Modi should he become the Prime Minister.
“How can we support a party which has thrown our Greater Autonomy resolution into the dustbin. This can never happen,” Mr Kamal told FreePress.
Mr Modi is the prime ministerial candidate of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
The National Conference has in the past supported the BJP government. But the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, who was then the junior minister for external affairs, later told the Indian Parliament that it was a mistake.
A local news agency had earlier quoted Mr Kamal as saying that his party would support Narendra Modi should he become the PM.
According to the agency, Mr Kamal recalled his father Sheikh Abdullah’s policy that the ruling party in Jammu and Kashmir had to “sit on the right side of the government in Delhi”.
But the NC leader has dismissed the statement saying his party will never support Mr Modi as the BJP was responsible for “many carnages” in the country.
He said the National Conference believed in strengthening secular politics. “And history has shown that the Congress is the most secular party and we will continue to support it.”
He added that another reason for not supporting BJP was that it was responsible for creating the People’s Democratic Party, the main opposition at present, in Kashmir.
