While addressing an election rally in Ramban ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Election, the Congress leader said, "For the first time in the history of India, statehood has been snatched away. Union Territory was first made a state... A state has been abolished and the rights of the people have been snatched away. First of all, the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir has to be returned because not only your state has been snatched away, your rights, your wealth, everything is being snatched away from you."
