Buoyed by its victory in the Kashmir Valley, former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday hoped that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soften his stand on Kashmir and start a dialogue with Pakistan.
While congratulating Modi for being re-elected as the prime minister of the country, he appealed to Modi to change his working style and take all the people of the country along.
“Country has re-elected Narendra Modi again despite Opposition parties trying hard to defeat the BJP. We also tried hard in Kashmir and won three seats. We would have won the Ladakh seat also, but Congress conspired and helped BJP to win the seat,” Omar said while addressing a press conference at the party headquarters, here, after election results were declared.
He said that Kashmiri people suffered a lot in the last five years, but hoped that Modi will soften his stand and start taking measures which will help give the people of Kashmir some relief.
“Jammu and Kashmir people have hopes that Modi will think positive and start dialogue with Pakistan and take internal measures which will give relief to people here,” the former CM said.
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“Strict policy was used against Kashmiris in the last five years. We hope the new government will ease out this policy. We hope the cross-LoC trade is resumed,” he said.
Hitting out at the Congress, Omar said that it conspired in Kargil and put up two candidates which helped BJP win the Ladakh LS seat.
Meanwhile, soon after being declared the winner from Srinagar-Budgam parliamentary constituency, NC president and Omar’s dad, Farooq Abdullah said that fighting against the evil designs that are hell-bent to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A won’t be an easy task for the newly elected parliamentarians of the party.
“This parliament will be difficult for the NC’s parliamentarians as they will have to fight against the evil designs that are hell-bent to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A. The parliamentarians will also fight against the forces who are dividing the people in the country,” he told reporters after being elected from Srinagar LS seat.