Updated: November 19, 2020 7:00:03 am
The Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, and the Party’s Vice Chairman, Omar Abdullah (PTI)
The BJP has declared the People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) as a “gang” who wants “foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir”, but is sharing power with the National Conference (NC), one of the main parties in the alliance, in the Ladakh Autonomous Development Council, Kargil (LAHDCK).
North Carolina President Farooq Abdullah is President of the PAGD. Of the 26 elected members of LAHDCK, 10 are from the NC, eight from Congress and three from the BJP; there are five independents. The Ladakh Union Territory administration nominates four members to the 30-member LAHDCK.
Headed by Feroz Khan of North Carolina as chairman / chief executive officer, the Hill Council has BJP’s Mohammad Ali Chandan as one of four other executive councilors, with the portfolios of Health, Income, Agriculture, Forests, Wildlife, Institute of Industrial and Soil Training. Conservation.
The NC and the BJP had contested the 2018 Kargil Hill Council elections on their own, said the BJP Executive Counsel, who represents the Shargole constituency.
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The signatories to the Gupkar Declaration have come together as the ‘People’s Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration’ to challenge the changes introduced at J&K on August 5, 2019. (Photo Express)
The PAGD was formally constituted last month as a platform of seven regional parties that seeks to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s special status as it existed before the constitutional changes on August 5, 2019. The PAGD parties have announced that they will contest on the 28th. of November. -On December 19, the District Development Council (DDC) elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir together.
On Tuesday, Interior Minister Amit Shah attacked the alliance in a series of tweets: “The Gupkar gang is going global! They want foreign forces to intervene in Jammu and Kashmir. The Gupkar gang also insults the tricolor of India. Do Sonia Ji and Rahul Ji support such movements of the Gupkar Gang? … Congress and the Gupkar Gang want to bring J&K back to the age of terror and confusion. “
A day earlier, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said at a press conference: “Farooq Abdullah has no qualms about seeking China’s support for the restoration of Article 370 … Mehbooba Mufti said he will not hoist the Tricolor unless the J&K flag is restored… Does Congress support the statements of Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti? Congress should say whether they are with the stated goal of the Gupkar Declaration. “
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When asked about the BJP’s shared power with the NC in LAHDCK, the BJP deputy from Ladakh and the party’s Ladakh unit chairman Jamyang Tsering Namgyal said that the BJP was “openly” in alliance with the NC, and that it would continue to be so. “Coalition BJP mein hai. Khul ke hai, full-fledged aagey bhi rahengey (BJP is in coalition [with NC in Kargil hill council]. We are in it openly, and we will also be a full part in the future). Hum Alliance mein hain to hain (that’s right), ” he said.
The “Kashmir NC” has nothing to do with the unity of that party in Kargil, Namgyal said. “In the next Council elections, the Kargil NC will also come to the BJP. There will be no other party here, ”he said. J&K, said the deputy, is a separate UT from Ladakh. “There (at J&K) they want to make J&K a state [again] and retrieve article 370, but it is not the case here. Ladakh is against article 370. ”
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However, LAHDCK executive adviser Feroz Khan said that the NC in Kargil was a unit of the party led by Farooq Abdullah. “Although Ladakh has become a separate TU, our parent organization remains the same and Farooq Abdullah is our leader,” he said.
The 2018 elections for the Kargil Hill Council had produced an ineffective verdict. The NC initially had an alliance with Congress; the PDP had two councilors and the BJP one. After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, NC and Congress fought, and NC entered a coalition with two PDP councilors and four independents to remain in power on the Hill Council. A few months later, both PDP councilors joined the BJP, creating the NC alliance with the saffron party.
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