Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir), November 7 : As chaos erupted in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party and its MLAs on Thursday, saying that the party simply wants to "only strengthen themselves" instead of working for the people of the region.
Kumar, while speaking to reporters said, "We are the ones who want to strengthen Bharat Mata. These people (BJP) are the ones who don't want to strengthen the country but only themselves," he said.
Addressing the chaos which unfolded in the assembly today, he added, "There is no confrontation. We have spoken about the benefit of people, about industries, tourism, education, industry etc. We are talking about our right. Others are talking about just gaining power. The people are seeing what CM, Farooq Abdullah, and Surinder Kumar Choudhary are saying is in their favour... National Conference is with the poor people, while those people (Opposition) are with the rich."
Former Deputy Chief Minister of J-K and BJP leader Kavinder Gupta said that the National Conference "wants to spoil the environment of J-K," and called the speaker of the assembly as an "agent of the National Conference."
"National Conference and political parties from Kashmir want to spoil the environment in J&K. The assembly's speaker, is working as an agent of National Conference and the session was ruined. It is the opposition's role to oppose what is wrong. It can be seen how opposition members were pushed. There were marshals present, among them, there could have been their party workers too. This will get clear only after checking the CCTV footage," he told ANI.
Earlier in the Assembly, Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) MLA Khurshid Ahmad Sheikh raised a banner on the restoration of Article 370, which was subsequently objected by the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Sunil Sharma along with other BJP MLAs. The MLAs stormed into the well of the house and were seen involved in a scuffle with Seikh Khurshid and other MLAs of the treasury bench.
The speaker ordered the marshals to remove those members who were seen crossing their limits and asked the opposition leaders to behave properly.
The first session of the new assembly will conclude on November 8.