Farooq Abdullah National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP are part of the Gupkar Alliance (Archive)
Srinagar:
Congress is a member of the People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of major political parties in J&K fighting to restore special status, and will participate in district-level elections as part of the group, said the Sunday the head of the National Conference, Farooq Abdullah. .
Abdullah, who is also the president of the PAGD, emphasized: “We are fighting together against the elections.”
“Where have they separated? There should be no mistake. Congress is part of the alliance and we are fighting together the DDC (district development council) elections,” he said.
Abdullah’s comment came a day after Congress said it would present its own candidates for the DDC elections, which will take place between November 28 and December 22.
When asked to respond, he said: “When you heard this … yesterday was different and today Mir sahib (J&K head of Congress, GA Mir) came to meet me and said that we are fighting together in the elections. “
“They are together this time. National Conference, Congress, PDP. People’s Conference and the rest. The situation is such that they should be together and be seen in public to be together,” said the leader of the Congress, Saifuddin Soz, who seems to confirm the arrival of your party. on board with the grouping.
Speculation that Congress would stay away from the PAGD increased after he missed scheduled meetings. Also, late last month, GA Mir appeared to downplay talks about joining Congress; He said the decision would be made by the party’s central leadership in Delhi.
However, Mr. Mir also explained that he had missed meetings due to health and schedule problems. He said that he was unwell when the first meeting was called (October 15) and that he was not in Srinagar at the time of the second (October 24).
Sources said Congress sought to distance itself from the J&K group until after voting for the Bihar elections, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP had made Article 370 a voting issue.
Now that the voting is over (the third and final phase ended on Saturday) and the PAGD has announced its participation in this month’s local elections, Congress has joined the bandwagon.
The PAGD, a grouping of seven parties, including Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP, is seen as a major political event after the central government withdrew special status in August last year.
The alliance has said its goal is to prevent the BJP from capturing the political landscape at J&K.
“This space is too sacred to be left to invaders. This is the most sacred space in democracy. We will not allow it to be prowled by invaders,” said Sajjad Lone of the J&K People’s Alliance.
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