SRI NAGAR: In her first election rally in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi dubbed the Lt Governor an “outsider” and added that policies and strategies in the region were being made for the outsiders. She vowed that the Congress would restore J&K’s statehood and 150-year-old Durbar Move tradition.
Priyanka was scheduled to address two election rallies in the Bilawar and Bishnah areas of Jammu ahead of the final and third phase of polling on October 1. However, due to inclement weather, her chopper could not land in Bilawar and reached Bishnah in the late afternoon to address the election rally.
“PM Modi snatched your statehood. It will not be restored by talking about the railway station or Effiel tower-like Chenab railway bridge. Statehood was your right. It safeguarded your jobs and land rights and strengthened small businesses. All these have been snatched,” the Congress leader said later in Bishnah.
She called Lt Governor Sinha an “outsider”, and said, “The policies in J&K are being made for outsiders. The contracts for the extraction of minerals are being given to outsiders, and you have to purchase them at higher rates. Here outside companies are coming and looting everything. The small businesses have been destroyed,” she said.
Taking a dig at the BJP, she said, “I was listening to Home Minister Amit Shah’s speech in which he said people should vote for us and we will restore statehood. It was the BJP that snatched statehood and now says vote for us and we will only restore it.”
Priyanka also said that unemployment has increased in J&K, due to which youth are falling to drug abuse.