Srinagar (NVI): In a major jolt to the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) in Jammu and Kashmir, People’s Conference chairperson Sajad Lone today announced his party’s exit from the Gupkar Alliance.
Sajad Lone made the declaration through a letter that he sent to PADG president Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Pertinent to mention here, that the Gupkar alliance, an amalgamation of Kashmir parties like People’s Democratic Party, National Conference and CPM, had won a majority in the recently held District Development Council (DDC) polls in J&K. The Congress had given outside support to PAGD.
“On the face of it, PAGD won these elections unambiguously having won the maximum number of seats. We can’t hide statistics and apart from the number of seats that PAGD won, other important statistical variable in the context of August 5 is the number of votes polled against the PAGD.
“We believe that the votes polled against the PAGD are majorly the votes cast by proxies of PAGD constituent parties against official PAGD candidates. And the net outcome of selectively voting for and against PAGD is a very poor vote share. This is certainly not the vote share that people of J and K deserved post August 5,” he said in a letter to Abdullah.
The PAGD alliance fought the local body elections on the poll plank of restoration of Article 370 that provided special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre had abrogated Article 370 in August 2019 and bifurcated the erstwhile J&K state into two Union Territories- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The Farooq Abdullah-led seven-party coalition had won 110 seats. The BJP had won 75 seats and emerged as the single largest party. Also, in first-the ever victory for BJP in Kashmir, it won three seats in the Valley, in the recently held DDC polls. PAGD alliance was formed in October last year to fight back for special status of J&K.
-ARK
