M A I N   N E W S

NC to continue support: Farooq

New Delhi, August 28
Two days after threatening to pull out from the NDA protesting central leadership’s insinuation against fairness of poll in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah tonight declared his National Conference would continue to support the alliance at the Centre.

He, however, said the proposed code of conduct for NDA partners should bar them from attacking one another.

“My party’s support to the alliance continues but I hope the proposed code of conduct for NDA allies will address this issue where they will be barred from making statements against each other,” Dr Abdullah, who arrived here this evening, said.

About his proposed meeting with NDA convener George Fernandes, the Chief Minister said there was no intimation for any such exercise.

Mr Fernandes had told reporters yesterday after a two-hour meeting of the NDA that he would be speaking to Dr Abdullah and clear his misunderstanding on the statements made by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani about the elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Vajpayee, in his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, had promise “free and fair elections” in the state in future and Mr Advani subsequently said doubts had been cast about the fairness of the past elections except those held in 1977 when Morarji Desai was Prime Minister.

The Chief Minister expressed happiness over the statement by the Prime Minister in Lucknow on Sunday that there might have been “some misunderstanding” on the part of Dr Abdullah following his speech and that he would try to remove any misunderstanding that Dr Abdullah may have had on the issue.

Dr Abdullah said: “Everyone in the ruling alliance should desist from unnecessary mud-slinging.” PTI