Srinagar, Nov 6 — The ruling National Conference (NC) dissident MLAs said on Friday that the social media reports of them trying to form a separate group were misplaced and the party high command had decided to address their genuine grievances.
They said this after a meeting with the NC president, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at the former's Gupkar Residence.
The dissidents told the media that their meeting with the party high command was nothing different but routine.
“We always keep on meeting our President, Dr Farooq Abdullah Sahib, and Omar Sahib to discuss political and other issues. Some social media groups tried to call our routine meetings as some kind of dissent or an attempt to break away from the party," Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, the MLA from Gurez, said
“There is no truth to these rumours. The party leadership has heard our issues. It has been agreed that some of these would be addressed immediately, and some would be addressed in a time-bound manner. That is all,” Gurezi told the reporters.
Coming out with the group of MLAs, Dr Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah looked completely relaxed and satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. Dr Farooq Abdullah told reporters, “Attempts have been made in the past as well to break the NC. Those have failed in the past, and these will continue to fail in the future," Dr Abdullah said.
“We met the MLAs of our party today. They raised genuine issues. Some of their issues would be addressed immediately, and others would be resolved in a time-bound manner. The party is united and shall continue to remain united,” Dr Abdullah added.
All the so-called dissidents, including Mubarak Gul, Abdul Majeed Larmi, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, Justice (Rtd) Hasnain Masoodi, Pirzada Farooq Shah and others, stood beside Dr Abdullah and Omar Abdullah as the party president was speaking to the media.
In all likelihood, the so-called dissent in NC has been taken care of by the party high command. Whether any demand raised by the group of MLAs would be agreed to by the Abdullahs would only become clear in the days to come, but at present, the storm in the teacup for the NC has withered away.