The Peoples’ Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the grouping of Jammu and Kashmir’s major regional parties, released the fourth list of its 16 candidates for District Development Council (DDC) polls on Friday. No candidate for Congress is on the list, which was published by PAGD chief Farooq Abdullah.
The list includes seven from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), four national conferences, two from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and one each from the candidates for the Peoples’ Conference, the Awami National Conference and the Movement of the Peoples.
Only the second of the PAGD lists included candidates for Congress. Congressional leaders attended a couple of PAGD meetings, but the party’s central leadership has denied having any alliance with PAGD. Congress has asked his Jammu and Kashmir unit to stand for election on its own. Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir has said that the party has alliances with parties, which are part of the PAGD on a seat basis.
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A PAGD leader said they hoped Congress would no longer be part of the alliance. “The local leadership of Congress, despite knowing the situation on the ground, can do nothing once the central leadership has denied the alliance.”
Union Interior Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday attacked the six-party bloc calling it the “Gupkar Gang” and asked congressional leaders to clarify their position on the grouping. The PAGD has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to delegitimize the coalition from participating in the democratic process.
So far, PAGD has released the names of 86 candidates for the BDC polls.
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