PDP filed a complaint alleging that BJP leaders were threatening Paharis to vote for Altaf Bukhari’s J&K Apni Party. File photo | Photo Credit: NISSAR AHMAD
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday filed a written complaint with the Returning Officer (RO), Anantnag, and alleged that BJP leaders were “threatening Paharis in the Rajouri-Poonch belt to vote for Altaf Bukhari’s J&K Apni Party”.
“Our party has lodged a written complaint with the RO, Anantnag, against criminal intimidation by BJP leaders in Rajouri and Poonch, asking them to vote for Apni Party or face consequences like that of 1947,” a PDP spokesman said.
Hundreds of tribals faced migration and hundreds of them died in rioting in 1947 in Rajouri-Poonch belt.
Earlier, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who is contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, shared a video, purportedly of a BJP leader addressing a group of Paharis in Rajouri-Poonch belt. The unknown BJP leader warns of consequences if Paharis vote for the National Conference (NC) or PDP in the upcoming polls.
“Is this why BJP wants to defer the Anantnag-Rajouri election so that its leaders can openly threaten violence against Paharis to force them to vote for the Apni Party or else they will create communal tensions reminiscent of the 1947 partition? The EC should take note and ensure peaceful and timely election. The attempted deferment should be viewed in the context of threatening,” Ms. Mufti said, in a post on X.
The BJP is not contesting from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat. However, the party has thrown its weight behind the J&K Apni Party to dislodge the Abdullahs and the Muftis from the constituency. The seat will see a contest between NC’s Mian Altaf, PDP’s Mufti and J&K Apni Party’s Zaffar Manhas. The seat, which was recast in 2022 by the J&K Delimitation Commission, has now more tribal votes than Kashmiri-speaking. The Commission had added Rajouri and Poonch, home to a majority of J&K’s tribals, with Anantnag.
