"Let Opposition survive": Farooq Abdullah takes dig at BJP

Farooq Abdullah. File pic

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of "creating fear", former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah said on Saturday that the BJP must let the Opposition "survive to strengthen" the democracy in the country. His remarks came in the wake of recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate on opposition leaders in connection with money laundering charges ahead of the string of state assembly elections in the five states.

"They (BJP) are trying to create fear...One day, they'll also be treated the same. If they really want a democracy, they must let the opposition survive. Killing the opposition will not strengthen the country...", Farooq, the former Union Minister, told ANI on Saturday in Srinagar. His remarks come days after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was summoned by the ED to appear before it for questioning in the Delhi Excise policy case. in which former Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia and AAP MP Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody.

The ruling BJP-led Centre had been maintaining that the probe agencies were doing their job, refusing the allegation of "political vendetta" from opposition bloc INDIA. Amid all this, facing heat over an alleged Rs 508 crore deal with Mahadev app promoters, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Saturday that the Bharatiya Janata Party is scared of him the most. That's why it is defaming him through the Enforcement Directorate.

"Because the BJP is scared of me the most. That's why they want to defame me by accusing me (through the ED)," Baghel told reporters here. Earlier on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate said that they have intercepted cash courier Asim Das, who was sent from the UAE, to deliver a large amount of cash for electioneering expenses of the ruling Congress party in Chhattisgarh.

The central agency added that the arrested person, Asim Das, confessed that Rs 508 crore has been so far paid to the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister by Mahadev APP Promoters. The INDIA bloc is an alliance of 28 political parties formed to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Five states--Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram--will go to the polls on different days from November 7-30, while the counting of the votes in these five states is scheduled on December 3.

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