We didn't compromise our agenda: Mehbooba

JAMMU: Mehbooba Mufti is ready to wield the sword against the National Conference. This time she hopes to avenge her humiliating defeat by Omar Abdullah in 1999.
The People’s Democratic Party leader, known as the godmother of Kashmiris, is confident she won’t fall to the kind of conspiracy she claims cost her the Srinagar seat by 36,000 votes.
“That was a different situation and we know how my defeat was manipulated by coercion through SPG and surrendered militants,� she told TNN.“It was a bad experience but we have learnt many things from that setback,� she said.
Mehbooba’s candidature from Srinagar has not been announced yet, but PDP party officials describe her as a “sure winner� from Anantnag constituency in South Kashmir.
“We will disclose our candidates in a phased manner. At the moment we have decided about only one candidate, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat from Baramulla,� Mehbooba said.
J&K has six parliamentary seats, Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag in the Valley; Jammu and Udhampur in the Jammu region and one in Ladakh.
Mehbooba and her partymen are currently waiting to see who is fielded by the NC; only then will be decide who to put up.
The party desperately needs to win South Kashmir, considered its bastion. In the 2002 assembly elections, the PDP secured 16 seats from there and rose to form the government.
Losing the parliamentary seat there would be a vote of no-confidence against her father, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government.
“We are confident because we did not perform badly. We did not compromise over our political agenda,� she says.
Mehbooba boasts about the achivements that she thinks will trigger a flood of votes for the PDP. “Didn’t we say peaceful dialogue with Pakistan and separatists to resolve the Kashmir issue? And we said no POTA in J&K, release of political prisoners, rehabilitation policy for surrendered militants and promotion of tourism. We took the opening of Srinagar-Muzzaffarabad road seriously.�
The NC won 29 seats in the last assembly elections and is now taking on the PDP over issues like unabated human rights violations, unemployment and the bill that denies Kashmiri women residency, property and job rights if they marry men from outside the state.
“We dared to bring the bill, got it passed in the Lower House and are committed to get it passed in the Upper House even at the cost of power,� Mehbooba said.