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Journalism of Courage
In a setback to the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the National Conference (NC) has decided to contest all three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley. This will pit the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party, the Valley’s two major mainstream parties, against each other. This also places a major question mark over the Peoples Alliance for the Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of political parties in the Valley that was formed in 2020 to fight for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
“Yes, we are contesting all the three seats in the Valley,” NC’s provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani told The Indian Express on Tuesday. “We have had consultations with the Congress after which we have decided it.” Asked if there were any consultations with the Peoples Democratic Party, Wani said they were talking “only with the Congress”.
Sources said the Congress wanted the NC to contest Srinagar and Baramulla and leave Anantnag for PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. The Congress had even offered the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat to the NC. But the Farooq Abdulla-led party was adamant about contesting all three Valley seats, citing its 2019 winning record. It currently holds all three constituencies.
Sources in the Congress said while the party would support NC candidates in Baramulla and Srinagar, it would most likely support Mufti if she decides to contest from Anantnag, a seat she has represented in the past, just like her father and PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
While Wani said the NC had yet to decide on candidates for the three Valley seats, sources in the party said the party plans to field its vice president Omar Abdullah from Srinagar, Shia leader Aga Roohullah from Baramulla, and Gujjar leader Mian Altaf from Anantnag. The party is hoping to cash in on the Gujjar-Pahari divide in Anantnag.
Reacting to the NC’s decision to go alone, PDP said it was hopeful that the NC would reconsider its decision in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. “When Farooq sahib was released from jail after 2019 (after the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status) he was asked about the strategy. He said they would devise the strategy only after talks with Mehbooba ji when she is released from jail,” senior PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar told The Indian Express. “But this time they didn’t talk with us.”
Akhtar said the PDP was ready to “sacrifice the party’s interests in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. He added, “We stand for unity. We are still hopeful that the National Conference will decide in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It is time to look beyond the party interests, it is time to look beyond who is winning and who is losing. We will continue our fight for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Asked what would be the party’s electoral decision, Akhtar said the PDP would wait. “The NC has made its stand official. Let us first wait for the Congress reaction. After that, we will sit together and decide.”
CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami, who is also the PAGD spokesperson, however, said the NC’s decision was not a setback as it was not an electoral formation. “It (NC’s decision to go alone) is not confirmed yet. But then let me remind you that the PAGD emerged out of a contest of certain issues,” he said, referring to the abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019. “We didn’t discuss any electoral issues (in the alliance) as of now.”
Tarigami, however, hoped that the political parties would put up a united fight against the BJP. “As a CPM leader, I will say that our party will, keeping in view the challenges and taking into account the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, try to maximise its efforts for unity,” he said.
