In J-K, third front led by Ghulam Nabi Azad poised to rise before LS polls as INDIA totters

Apni Party general secretary Rafi Mir said Tuesday that they have “proposed to talk to various like-minded parties who want to work for the prosperity of the people of J&K”.

DPAP chief spokesperson Salman Nizami said the “talks with like-minded parties were at initial stage”. “A final decision will be taken by DPAP chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad in the coming days,” he added.

The first signal came during an “extraordinary meeting’’ of the Apni Party in Srinagar Monday, where the party authorised its president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari to “explore the possibility of alliance with the like-minded parties’’.

Sources said the three-party alliance is likely to be headed by DPAP chief Ghulam Nabi Azad, the fomer Congress stalwart and ex-chief minister, claiming that several former legislators and ministers from other parties, including Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would join it.

Once formed, the alliance is likely to pose a formidable challenge to the INDIA bloc in J&K. A slew of leaders from the NC, PDP and Congress, which are the key INDIA constituents in J&K, switched to the BJP, Apni Party or DPAP following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 and the grant of the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status to Paharis through the enactment of a legislation earlier this year.

Democratic Progressive Azad Party chief Ghulam Nabi Azad during a rally in Jammu on Sunday. (PTI/File)

On its part, the Opposition bloc has failed to hammer out a seat-sharing pact in J&K so far. The NC has declared that it would field candidates in all the three seats of the Valley – Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla – even though the PDP wants it to leave Anantnag for Mehbooba. While the NC has maintained that it had won all the three seats in the Valley in the 2019 elections, the PDP points out that the former had lost all of them to it in the 2014 polls.

“If NC goes ahead with its decision to contest all the three seats of the Valley on its own, then we will also field our candidates in all these seats,’’ a senior PDP leader said. This would hurt the prospects of both of them, benefiting the proposed third front.

In the 2019 polls, the NC’s Mohammad Akbar Lone had won the Baramulla seat, beating the J&K Peoples Conference’s candidate by 30,233 votes. Lone garnered 1,33,426 votes, even as Engineer Rashid, an independent, got 1,02,168 and the PDP’s Abdul Qayoom Wani 53,530 votes.

In Anantnag then, the NC’s Hasnain Masoodi had polled 40,180 votes, defeating his nearest rival, the Congress’s G A Mir by 6,676 votes. Mehbooba and BJP candidate Sofi Yousuf had finished third and fourth by polling 30,524 votes and 10,225 votes, respectively.

With a total of 86.9 lakh electors, J&K’s five parliamentary constituencies are going to the polls in five phases beginning with Udhampur in the first phase (April 19), followed by Jammu (April 26), Anantnag (May 7), Srinagar (May 13) and Baramulla (May 20).

The DPAP has already announced the candidature of senior party leader and ex-minister G M Saroori from Udhampur. With its strong support base in the predominantly Hindu-inhabited areas of the region, the BJP appears to be comfortably placed in Jammu and Udhampur. The party had clinched both the seats in the 2014 and 2019 polls by over 3 lakh votes.

The scrapping of Article 370 in 2019 has changed the political dynamics in J&K, which led to the implementation of Forest Rights Act providing safeguards to Gujjars and Bakerwals, 2022 delimitation, inclusion of the Pahari community in the ST list, and the reservation of ST seats in the Assembly.

To address the apprehensions of the existing ST groups like Gujjars and Bakerwals over the inclusion of Paharis in the ST fold, the Centre has stipulated separate quotas for both in jobs and education.

Barring the Sunderbani-Kalakote Assembly constituency, the entire Poonch and Rajouri districts, which have a sizeable population of Gujjars, Bakerwals and Paharis, have been added to the Anantnag parliamentary constituency.

This may come as a shot in the arm to the BJP on one hand and the DPAP and Apni Party on the other as most of the Gujjar, Bakerwal and Pahari leaders from these districts have joined these parties in recent months, say political observers, adding that if the proposed third front takes shape it would be a “formidable force” in at least Baramulla and Anantnag seats.

Meanwhile, NC leader and ex-CM Omar Abdullah alleged Wednesday that the Centre was using all its might to defeat the NC in the Lok Sabha polls, adding that his party was making preparations for the polls.

Asked about a third front coming up in J&K, Omar reportedly told media persons it would not make much of a difference as such attempts had been made in the past as well.

“We have seen such tie-ups earlier also when all the parties came together against Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah in 1977. The result is known to everyone. So, whether it is a ‘B’ team or ‘C’ team, it does not matter. The sooner they make an announcement about it the better. We are ready for this test,” Omar said.