People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti today announced that her party will extend support to the ruling National Conference (NC) in the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled for tomorrow.
Speaking at a press conference here, Mehbooba said the PDP would vote for the NC to keep the BJP and communal forces at bay.
She hoped that the ruling NC would help pass two crucial bills — one on land regularization and another on regularization of daily wagers.
“We are ready to give them our votes, but we have one or two conditions. The most important is our bill on land regularization,” she said.
Mehbooba pointed out that since 2019, many families in Jammu and Kashmir have been living under fear of eviction.
“People’s homes and shops should be regularized, and they should be given ownership rights. The same goes for hotel owners who have been running hotels for generations. Their leases should not be terminated and given to outsiders,” she said.
Citing the plight of the Schedule Tribe communities, Mehbooba said they were among the most vulnerable to displacement.
She added that the issue of land rights was deeply connected with the abrogation of Article 370.
“The real issue after Article 370 abrogation is how to protect the land of Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
The PDP chief said she had personally spoken to Farooq Abdullah and sought his support in passing the bill, noting that the NC, with a majority in the Assembly and the Speaker’s chair, was in a position to do so.
She also recalled how the Leader of Opposition in J&K Assembly and BJP leader Sunil Sharma had dubbed her proposed legislation as “land jihad” and threatened to block it.
The second bill, Mehbooba said, pertains to the regularization of daily wagers who have been protesting across Jammu and Kashmir.
“For 20–25 years, these people have been working in various departments for meagre wages, often without salaries. We want this injustice to end,” she said.
Mehbooba stressed that while she does not consider the NC fully “trustworthy,” the PDP’s decision was driven by a larger goal — to stop the BJP’s advance and uphold the secular spirit of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Our three votes may be few, but they are important. We will give them in the third preference to Shami Oberoi, not in the fourth, so that NC cannot blame us later if the results go either way,” she said.
She added that the PDP was trusting the word of Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah that the pro-people bills would be supported and passed in the Assembly.
