Pc has emerged as alternative to dynastic parties: sajjad lone

Peoples Conference chairman and former minister Sajjad Gani Lone Tuesday said his party has “emerged as an alternative to the dynastic parties” in Kashmir, even as he accused the National

Conference and Peoples Democratic Party of “joining hands” with the Congress to “defeat our candidate in the Srinagar mayoral elections.” Addressing a press conference at his official

residence here, Lone said the “so-called boycotters united to defeat my candidate Junaid Mattu.” “I am delight over my party’s victory because NC, PDP and Congress had allied against us. I

wonder where from councilors of these parties sprang up when they took a high moral ground of boycotting the polls,” he said, adding that there were “confabulations between presidents of

these parties to defeat the PC.” Lone, who was flanked by Irfan Ansari and newly-elected mayor Junaid Azam Mattu, came down heavily on the Congress for its remarks that the mayoral election

was a “contest between secularism and communalism.” “This was the election of lanes and drains. I don’t know how lanes and drains can be communal or secular?  The dacoits of 1987 elections

are accusing us of being communal. The Congress is responsible for the bloodshed and miseries of Kashmiris,” Lone said, adding that Congress was “responsible for thrusting gun upon

peace-loving Kashmiris by rigging elections during their tenure.” “If there was any Prime Minister who was won the hearts of Kashmiris, it was Atal Bihari Vajaypee of the Bharatiya Janata

Party. Why we don’t take the name of any Congress Prime Minister when it comes to winning hearts of Kashmiris. They have remained in power for 55 years,” he said. He said the Congress should

“introspect” than “raise fingers on others.” “I am not a chocolate boy. Their leaders were sitting in Delhi when I was interrogated and tortured here,” he said. To a question about low

voter turnout in the recently held municipal elections, Lone said there have been spells of low and high turnouts in Kashmir. “The low turnout and high turnout at the end of the day is

something that is here for the past 30 years,” he said. He said his party has emerged as an “alternative to dynastic parties” in Kashmir. “Peoples Conference is a political party. It is not

any third front or alliance,” he said when asked whether he would head the “third front.” He added that his party has emerged as a “force to reckon with” in Kashmir. Asked whether Imran Raza

Ansari helped him during elections, Sajjad said: “Irfan, who happens to be Imran’s brother, openly campaigned for the party during the elections.” “Irfan is our senior leader. He worked

very hard during elections,” he said, describing Yasir Reshi, a rebel PDP MLC, as his brother. He said Srinagar has been neglected by successive regimes and his party would “strive to

restore its pristine glory.”