NC- PDP Bonhomie Over; Recoiling Acrimony May Write Obituary of Gupkar Alliance too
Srinagar: The boisterous bonhomie between National Conference (NC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) stimulated by the Narendra Modi government’s striking down the Article 370 of the Constitution seems to have hit the dead end as Jammu and Kashmir’s two major political parties -until not too long ago known as sworn bête noires- have started crossing swords again.
The Kashmir watchers say that the return of bitterness in their relations may also write obituary of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of J&K’s regional political parties and their allies from the national Left parties, formed in 2019 to make a joint effort for the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status and statehood. Both the NC and PDP are its main constituents.
The two parties are back to belligerent mood and are publicly finding fault with each other following the NC refused to spare the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat for the PDP to contest from as part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc. The Congress had tried to fire-fight but has failed.
Former chief minister and NC vice president Omar Abdullah on Friday said that his party was ready to surrender this seat to the Congress, but there is no question of supporting the PDP on it as the party stood third there in the last Lok Sabha elections and that too at the time “when it had enough support on the ground.”
He said that the NC would field its candidates for all the three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley which it has won handsomely in the 2019 elections and extend its support to the Congress on both seats of the Jammu region as well as the lone seat of Ladakh. “We have already finalized our candidates for all the three seats of Kashmir. I will announce their names as per our convenience,” he told reporters here.
Mr. Abdullah said that before joining the I.N.D.I.A. bloc if he had been told that he will have to “weaken” his own party for another constituent “I would have never opted for becoming a part of it.” He added, “We did not push the PDP out of this election, the circumstances did it.”
Mr. Abdullah said that media persons are repeatedly asking him why the NC is not ready to leave the Anantnag-Rajouri seat for the PDP to contest from. “How can we do that when the PDP had finished third there in the last elections and then why do not you ask them (PDP) what kind of coalition dharma is it that you routinely target the NC in your speeches and tweets and other social media posts”.
When asked to react, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti sought to throw the ball in the Congress’s court. “I am a fighter, but I will talk to the Congress which is a part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc in this regard and will make our decision public soon”. She, however, also said that she has been hurt by the NC’s decision “as the party has done what BJP could not do to damage the PAGD”.
The PDP insiders say that Ms. Mufti is interested in contesting herself from Anantnag, her home constituency she had represented in the 14th Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2009. The NC is reportedly planning to field popular Gujjar leader and former minister Mian Altaf Ahmed from what is now known as Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat after certain areas of the twin frontier districts of Rajouri and Poonch were clubbed in south Kashmir's Anantnag Lok Sabha seat through the last delimitation process. The constituency with a large Gujjar and Bakerwal populations is likely to throw a major battleground between the opposition and the BJP. However, the presence of more than one strong opposition candidate in the fray might divide the anti-BJP vote, the Kashmir watchers say.