NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
YEH HAI INDIA
CHAT
ELECTIONS '96

Soz questions Farooq's support to BJP

Differences surfaced in the National Conference today, with Lok Sabha member and former Union minister Saifuddin Soz opposing the decision taken by the party's president and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah to support the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre.

In a statement in New Delhi, Professor Soz said the NC working committee should have been convened to discuss the issue. Taking a decision to support the BJP-led government and its candidate for the Lok Sabha speakership was ''nothing short of adding insult to injury'', he added.

Professor Soz also criticised Dr Abdullah for justifying support to the BJP government on the grounds that it was necessary for the economic development of Jammu and Kashmir. He should not have come to the conclusion that central assistance would be stopped if there was a non-BJP government at the Centre. Dr Abdullah should reconsider his decision on supporting the BJP government in view of its links with communal forces, Professor Soz said, and opposed the proposed National Front to be set up by the National Conference, the Telugu Desam Party and Asom Gana Parishad. Jammu and Kashmir would not benefit from this, he added.

UNI

Elections '98

Tell us what you think of this report