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Separatist leader to contest Lok Sabha polls
Srinagar (PTI): In a radical departure from the separatists' known stand of boycotting elections in Jammu and Kashmir, People's Conference leader Sajjad Lone on Saturday announced his decision to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The 42-year-old separatist leader, who is the chairman of breakaway People's Conference, however, said his decision to "fight elections is a change of strategy."
This was a victory of democracy and a "commitment to use this mechanism (polls) as a method to represent the voice of the Kashmiri people", he told a press conference here.
Asked whether his decision was a setback to separatists, Mr. Lone said it was not so as they had never "owned him".
"If we make success out of it (elections), the struggle will go from streets to institutions (Parliament)," he said.
In a muted reaction, Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of separatist outfits, said Mr. Lone's decision to contest the elections was a personal one.
"This is his personal decision. We have nothing to do with it," Hurriyat's acting chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari told PTI.
Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has launched a poll boycott campaign, was not available for comments.
Srinagar (PTI): In a radical departure from the separatists' known stand of boycotting elections in Jammu and Kashmir, People's Conference leader Sajjad Lone on Saturday announced his decision to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The 42-year-old separatist leader, who is the chairman of breakaway People's Conference, however, said his decision to "fight elections is a change of strategy."
This was a victory of democracy and a "commitment to use this mechanism (polls) as a method to represent the voice of the Kashmiri people", he told a press conference here.
Asked whether his decision was a setback to separatists, Mr. Lone said it was not so as they had never "owned him".
"If we make success out of it (elections), the struggle will go from streets to institutions (Parliament)," he said.
In a muted reaction, Hurriyat Conference, an amalgam of separatist outfits, said Mr. Lone's decision to contest the elections was a personal one.
"This is his personal decision. We have nothing to do with it," Hurriyat's acting chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari told PTI.
Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who has launched a poll boycott campaign, was not available for comments.
