Srinagar, Dec 29: Lauding the resilience of party workers, National Conference (NC) President Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday said that the thumping victory of his party candidates in District Development Council (DDC) elections shows how deep-rooted the party is across Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Abdullah, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Srinagar, made these remarks while addressing a function to felicitate newly elected DDC members from NC at the party headquarters in the summer capital, Srinagar.
He said it was the ideological congruence with socio-political and economic emancipation of the poor at its core that helped the party to withstand the hostile and challenging times.
The Party, he said, has endured its character by working for the poor and destitute to iron out social and economic disparity in Kashmir by making recurring drastic and pro poor contributions in all areas from time to time.
An NC spokesperson said that on the occasion, the triumphant DDC candidates of the Party were individually festooned by the party president with garlands. “The party vice President Omar Abdullah, General Secretary Haji Ali Muhammad Sagar and Provincial President Nasir Aslam Wani also felicitated the Party’s DDC candidates hoping that the winning candidates would live up to the obligations and responsibilities of the post,” he said.
Expressing gratitude to the people for their overwhelming support to the National Conference, the Party President said the people have done their bid and that now it was the turn of elected DDC members to pay off by rising up to the expectations of people with pure and simple service motive.
“I am hopeful that the Party’s DDC members will devise an all inclusive strategy to serve people, address their concerns and become a voice for the voiceless. We in our party have always upheld that people are the real source of power; therefore it is more binding for our elected DDC members to keep in touch with their constituents. Unfortunately we have lost half a decade since 2015, now I am hopeful that the newly elected DDC, keeping up with the party agenda will make most of the bottom-up style of development envisioned and introduced by Sher-e-Kashmir and work day in, day out to make a discernible difference in people’s lives,” he said.
Extolling the functionaries and workers to heap on their public outreach, Dr Abdullah said that there was no scope for resting as the forthcoming days and months would be equally challenging.
“We saw how brazenly the administration discriminated against our contesting candidates and created hurdles to impede our public outreach by flaunting all democratic norms. The anti democratic forces will again contrive to rein in and encumber our efforts underway for the restoration of people’s rights. However our workers and functionaries withstood all sorts of difficulties on their own with no support coming from any quarter. I am hopeful that the party rank and file will keep up with the resolute behavior. Unity holds the key to success. In the days our detractors will employ all sorts of enticements, coercion and intimidation to break our unity. We on our behalf have to strengthen our rows against their machination and face the challenges ahead of us resolutely,” he added.