Presidential polls: Er Rasheed abstains from voting
Defending his decision to abstain from casting vote for presidential polls, MLA Langate, Er. Rasheed, on Monday, said that voting for BJP candidate was never a choice and united opposition had lost the right to seek the vote.
Er. Rasheed said, “Though the top Congress leadership approached me more than once for voting in favour of the joint opposition candidate, but I made it clear to them that Congress had lost the right to seek my vote. This was in the backdrop of the broken promises made by UPA’s previous presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee.”
“On meeting Pranab Mukherjee at SKICC, I had submitted a memorandum seeking clemency for Afzal Guru. He had promised a humanitarian view of the clemency petition in presence of both Omar Abdullah and Saif-ud-din Soz.”
He had assured that Afzal will not be hanged but after becoming President he forgot the promise. This is the reason for not voting for anyone seeking the top constitutional post.”
Rasheed also added that he had voted for Ghulam Nabi Azad in the Rajya Sabha not out of love, but for the fact that the political hegemony of Muslim community in Jammu was completely bulldozed by Sang Parivar and Congress MLA’s at the direction of party chief Sonia Gandhi had given in writing that Afzal Guru’s hanging was unwanted.
KV Correspondent
