Beg's decision to quit party not surprising: NC

Ruling National Conference today said the resignation of senior party leader and former Member of Parliament Mehboob Beg from the party is "not surprising" as he had gone against the party in the past as well.
"Beg had decided to leave the NC and spoken against the party. It is not surprising for us as he had in the past as well deserted the party and spoken against it," NC's Kashmir provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani told reporters here.
Wani said the only thing in Beg's speech in Anantnag earlier today which was "surprising" was his assertion that the party had not done anything for the people of Anantnag.

"He was the MLA for the six years and then an MP as well. If there is any lack of development in Anantnag, the responsibility lies on him," Wani said.
The NC leader said during campaigning for Lok Sabha polls, which Beg lost to PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, Beg had lashed out at the opposition party for "carrying out atrocities on Kashmiris".
"We want to remind Beg that during his campaign he had lashed out (PDP patron) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and PDP for carrying out atrocities on Kashmiris. He had held Sayeed responsible for massacres like the one in Bijbehara (in Anantnag district). He was telling people that PDP and BJP were together and now he is saying that only Sayeed and PDP can stop BJP.

"Whatever he had said during the campaign, he has negated that all. He has shown his true face today," Wani said.

The NC provincial president said Beg deserting the party was "nothing new" in a democracy and for the NC as well.
"One feels bad when you lose a colleague like this. But it is nothing new for the NC. The party has seen such things in the past as well and it happens at the time of elections and is nothing new in a democracy," he said.
Responding to Beg's allegation that there was no internal democracy in the party and "party leadership not listening to its cadre," Wani said the former parliamentarian had met the party working president and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah only once after losing the Lok Sabha polls and demanded a ministerial berth.

"After he lost the election, he met Omar just once. And during that meeting he (Beg) did not discuss anything other than his political career. He wanted Omar to save his (Beg's) political career and wanted to be accommodated in the state cabinet. Where is the question of there being no internal democracy in the party?" Wani said.
He said Beg's leaving the NC would not affect the party much.
"If he couldn't do anything for his constituency, what could he have done for the party. The perceptions and pre-poll surveys do not matter. It is the electorate which has to decide," the NC leader said, adding that the party would soon finalise a new candidate for the Assembly segment.