SRINAGAR: Governing National Conference (NC) in Jammu & Kashmir Wednesday described the resignation of its Srinagar MP, Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, as the handiwork of BJP, saying the party had succeeded in its mission under ‘Operation Lotus’.Addressing a news conference at the party headquarters in Srinagar, NC legislators Salam Sagar and Sajad Shaheen said the MP’s departure was the outcome of a “planned and calculated” strategy.“BJP has succeeded in getting Aga Sahib (Mehdi) out of NC. He has now joined a force that has tried two or three times over the past 80-90 years to weaken us, but we managed to defeat those attempts earlier,” Sagar said.“What you witnessed yesterday (Tuesday) in Kashmir is similar to ‘Operation Lotus’ carried out in Parliament to engineer defections and get MPs to leave their parties. With Aga Sahib’s help, BJP’s agenda has been fulfilled,” the NC MLAs alleged.The duo termed Mehdi’s allegation that NC had abandoned its fight for restoration of J&K’s special status an excuse and ruse. “He (Mehdi) was with the party for 24 years. If he failed to realise in all these years that we are not sincere in following our agenda, as he has alleged, then it speaks about him, rather than the party,” Sagar said, adding: “We will never compromise on Articles 370 and 35A or the rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.”J&K deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary accused BJP of misleading the NC MP, referring to its national vice-president Ram Madhav’s reported remark in Jammu on Tuesday that Mehdi held a rally in Budgam after his resignation with the blessings of “our people”.
Share your thoughts in the comments
Be respectful · TOI community guidelines
“Aga Sahib was a good and respectable person. BJP misled him, and Ram Madhav himself said yesterday said that Aga Sahib was their man,” Choudhary told media persons in Jammu on Wednesday.Responding to the allegations, BJP spokesperson Sajjad Yousuf Shah said the party had nothing to do with NC’s internal affairs. ‘Operation Lotus’ was a figment of NC’s imagination, he said, insisting that Ram Madhav was in Jammu under a preplanned party programme and his visit had nothing to do with the crisis in the governing party.
