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Srinagar: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday accused the ruling National Conference of dragging the Quran into partisan battles to deflect attention from governance failures, while PDP leaders dismissed NC’s Rajya Sabha poll allegations as diversionary and misplaced.

Mehbooba Mufti, reacting to NC’s demand that PDP legislators swear on the Quran to prove they did not back the BJP in last year’s Rajya Sabha elections, said the ruling party was exploiting religion to mask its shortcomings.

She pointed to demolitions carried out under the pretext of fighting drugs, arbitrary dismissals of employees, and the neglect of meritorious students as examples of NC’s governance failures.

Meanwhile, PDP’s Waheed Para also hit out at NC, calling its outcry over the Rajya Sabha polls “counterproductive” and a ploy to divert attention from substantive issues such as the attachment of the Sirajul Uloom school under UAPA and the erasure of Urdu from official records.

He accused NC of breaking the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration and excluding PDP from the INDIA bloc during assembly elections, stressing that PDP had nonetheless extended unconditional support in the Rajya Sabha polls.

NC had won three seats while the BJP secured one, with cross-voting blamed for the loss of a fourth seat. Allegations against PDP intensified after an RTI revealed the party had not appointed a chief agent for the polls. Para countered that the responsibility lay with NC, questioning why the ruling party would trust a PDP-appointed agent if it did not trust PDP legislators themselves.

He urged NC chief Omar Abdullah to shift focus from blame games to governance, warning that targeting PDP risks fracturing opposition unity and inadvertently aiding the BJP’s agenda.

“Omar Sahab, I wish you stability and strength. Rather than dwelling on one lost Rajya Sabha seat, the government should ensure its 50 MLAs and 5 MPs deliver effective governance,” Para said.