Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Tuesday that the people still have not exonerated the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi,for his role in the 2002 riots in Gujarat.
He accused Mr. Modi of being the proponent of a “divisive, communal agenda for grabbing power at the Centre.”
On the second day of his extensive campaigning for the Congress-National Conference coalition candidate Madan Lal Sharma in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch, Mr. Abdullah said at a public meeting at Darhal—one of the two Assembly segments represented by the Opposition Peoples Democratic Party in Jammu—that Mr. Modi and the BJP had “a parochial agenda of dividing society on various counts to grab the power.”
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He alleged that the PDP, “a regional party of communal orientation,” was only helping the BJP in its ambition by generating a polarisation in the Muslim-majority Rajouri-Poonch belt.
Mr. Abdullah referred to an incident when Mr. Modi had purportedly declined to wear a skullcap offered to him and asserted that a Prime Minister of the communal mindset could prove to a be a national disaster for a plural, composite society like India.
“Normally there are three types of the candidates in the election fray: Those who contest just for the sake of gaining name and fame; those who put hurdle in the smooth sailing of the winning candidates; and, those who are known to be the sure shots to win the elections.”
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He described PDP as the performer of the middle category. Mr. Abdullah, who also addressed the election rallies in Budhal and Kotranka said that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was the “embodiment of a many great virtues and capabilities to lead the nation”.