Thaindian News

Jammu, Oct 17 (IANS) In one of the most scathing attacks on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party Monday charged him with spending the last three years in “saving his chair” rather than attending to governance.

The PDP which has ratcheted up its attack on the National Conference and the chief minister for the past month, Monday went a step ahead, and alleged that Abdullah was “more interested in saving his chair” and had “disconnected with the people of the state completely”.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, who is on a two-day visit to the Jammu region, during her speech at Billawar, 140 km from Jammu, late Monday evening said that “during the last three years there is a sense of fear and insecurity among the common masses”. She emphasised that instead of providing governance, the chief minister was more concerned over his survival.

“As the chief minister has been committing one after another blunder after repeated intervals, he has been spending most of his time in saving his chair during the last three years,” she said, and added that the “chief minister has disconnected himself with the people.”

She was drawing a comparison with the rule of the PDP from 2002 and 2005. During the rule of PDP, “the people were given freedom from fear and insecurity and there were peace and reconciliation initiatives that contributed toward an overall atmosphere of peace.”

Mehbooba regretted that all the gains made during PDP-Congress rule had “been squandered away by the Omar Abdullah government”.

PDP and National Conference are bitter rivals in the Kashmir politics. Of late PDP has increased its presence in Jammu region, where it had won two seats in the 2008 assembly polls and made substantial gains in the panchayat elections held this year.

Interestingly, senior leader and Additional General Secretary of National Conference Sheikh Mustafa Kamal also arrived here Monday to work on the party’s “re-activate cadre” campaign.