Kolkata: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said that he was Muslim, an Indian and India was his country.

“I am a Muslim and I love India, my country,” he said amid large applause from the gathering in Bengal.

Mr Abdullah blamed the BJP for the ‘deteriorating situation’ in Jammu and Kashmir and said people are being divided on religious lines.

He sought to dump the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) calling them “chor machines” and insisted that united efforts ought to be made by opposition parties to bring back the ballot paper system in country’s electioneering process.

Speaking at the united opposition rally organised by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, he said, “Yeh Chor machine hae (The EVM is chor machine)”.

He said the opposition unity is not the question of ousting any single person or the Prime Minister Narendra Modi but the bigger issue at stake is the need to save the country from disasters as being brought by the Modi government.

“The EVM is chor machine. Honestly speaking, its use must be put to an end. Nowhere in the world is the machine used. The opposition parties should approach the Election Commission and the President of India to stop the use of the EVM,” he said at the Brigade rally also attended by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and the stalwarts among regional party leaders such as Sharad Pawar, N Chandrababu Naidu and many others.

Speaking at the rally, former Union Minister Arun Shourie said the opposition leaders should be ready for making sacrifices and only then any effective fight can be launched against the BJP-led NDA.

Sitting BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha were also present at the rally.