Balakot airstrike was executed to win polls: Farooq Abdullah

Srinagar: Former Union minister and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah on Monday accused the Election Commission of Indian (ECI) of toeing the government line by not agreeing to hold the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections along with those for the Lok Sabha.

He also alleged that the airstrikes ordered by the government against an alleged Jaish-e-Muhammad base in Pakistan’s Balakot area was aimed at winning the Lok Sabha elections by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The sole purpose of going in for the surgical strike (airstrike) at Balakot was to win the Lok Sabha elections,” he told reporters.

Speaking on India-Pakist-an tensions, the NC leader said, “The whole theatrics of warmongering following the Pulwama attack is aimed at giving Modi an escape route. The forthcoming elections are, without any doubt, between the people of India and Narendra Modi.”

He alleged that an atmosphere of fear is being created in the country to help BJP in the polls.

The former chief minister said that there is no other way but to talk to Pakistan over the Kashmir issue.

“They want to create an atmosphere of fear. There would be no war. The whole world is watching. This government is only using the senior officer for winning the election, the officer whom they got by superseding many others and who is now dancing to their tunes. Otherwise, there is no danger,” he said without naming the “officer” but in an obvious reference to the incumbent Army chief.

Expressing dismay over ECI’s decision of not holding Assembly polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in J&K, he said that it is a major setback to democracy in the state.

“The ones who took this democratically incoherent decision must be up to some mischief, otherwise there is no sound reason for not conducting both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections together,” he said.