Farooq gets home, warns Mufti govt

Former J-K CM Farooq Abdullah today made his presence felt in mainstream politics. Sending a signal that National Conference was down but not out, Abdullah warned the state government that NC could topple it in a day but ‘‘we want to mitigate the people’s problems and play the role of an effective Opposition before doing that’’.

As the Abdullahs were received at Srinagar airport, party supporters shouted slogans like ‘‘aauha aauha pader seh aauha (here comes the lion)’’ and ‘‘Muftien kabar Kashire nabr (Mufti’s grave is outside Kashmir)’’. Not to be outdone, Abdullah shouted: ‘‘Aage kya, peechhe kya, dain kya, bain kya’’, and the crowd would respond with ‘‘National, National’’.

Later, Abdullah told his party workers that NC can topple Mufti’s government any moment. ‘‘I will talk to the people in New Delhi who matter in this regard,’’ he said. He also said they were not after power ‘‘and our emphasis is to resurrect the party’’.