Efforts on for patch-up between UPA, TMC: Farooq

BANGALORE: Commenting on the ongoing tussle between United Progressive Alliance (UPA) the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said that the Union government was trying to work out a strategy to ‘patch-up’ differences between the two.Speaking to media persons after taking part in a programme organised to mark Imam Hussain Day celebrations in the city, he said that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan was working towards a patch up and denied any move by Mamata Banerjee towards the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). “This is not the time to find faults,” he replied to a question about who was responsible for the ongoing fiasco and said that it was time to patch up these differences. He also said that the Election Commission ‘knows what they are doing’ in Uttar Pradesh about their decision to cover up the statues there before the State goes into polls.Commenting about the power crisis in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had led to a statewide bundh, he said that electricity and communication must be restored at the earliest and the Centre was giving full cooperation in this regard.He justified the demand for reservations by minorities and said that initially reservations were meant for people from the SC/ST category. “But since the state of the minorities is worse than SC and STs, the demand for reservation is justified,” Farooq Abdullah felt. Noted film director Mahesh Bhatt, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Rahman Khan and many other religious leaders took part in the event to commemorate the Martyrdom of the Imam in 680 AD.