J&K AAP chairman quits over its ‘disconnect’ with public issues, returns to Panthers Party

Singh said he decided to leave the AAP as no one in the party was raising their voice over rising public problems on key issues like power, water, schools, ration and pension. Besides, the BJP was bringing new laws every day and foisting them on the people, whose lands were being snatched and houses demolished, he charged.

With old age pensions stopped and new guidelines made for widow’s pension in J&K, he claimed that new orders were being issued daily by the administration to harass the common man over the issuance of Aadhaar cards, new formats of Income Tax and domicile certificates, etc. He added that no political party was raising their voice against the BJP as all of them, barring the Panthers Party, have some “vested interests”. He went on to say that he has taken up the project of reviving the Panthers Party at the behest of the people as the JKNPP “is their only voice in the region”.

Singh, who had been elected MLA on the Panthers Party’s ticket from Ramnagar constituency in Udhampur district for three consecutive terms from 1996, had joined the AAP in May 2022, following on the defection of former JKNPP MLAs, Yash Pal Kundal and Balwant Singh Mankotia, to the

Arvind Kejriwal-led party. Like Singh, Kundal was also a former minister in the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP-Congress coalition government, formed in 2002.

Singh and Mankotia are cousins. While Kundal is still with the AAP, Mankotia has switched to the BJP.

Amit Kapoor, a senior J&K AAP leader, who claimed he had brought Harsh Dev Singh into the party, alleged that the latter had resigned after the AAP high command had declined to grant him Rs 12 lakh per month to run the party’s affairs in the Union Territory. He added that Singh had raised the demand for money through one of his “gurney (supporters)” at the AAP meeting in Delhi on January 23. Kapoor added that Singh had unsuccessfully tried to convince the party leadership to scrap the existing AAP team and make him the party’s J&K chief. Singh was not available for comments on these allegations.

The JKNPP, recognised by the Election Commission, was founded by Bhim Singh in 1982 as a splinter outfit of the Indian National Congress. Bhim died on May 31, 2022, following which the party saw an exodus of senior leaders from its fold.

Bhim Singh had been elected MLA twice from Chenani – on a Congress ticket in 1977, and again in 1983 (at a time when elections were held in J&K every 6 years). He was later nominated to the Legislative Council too, during the Mufti Sayeed-led coalition government. He had also contested the 1997 Lok Sabha by-election from Udhampur, in which, despite leading by 30,000 votes at the end of counting, was declared to have lost in a repoll. The result was overturned by the J&K High Court after Singh challenged the decision.

After Bhim Singh’s death, the JKNPP split into two groups, one headed by P K Ganjoo, the other by Vilakshan Singh, his another nephew. Both factions have now filed their claims for recognition before the EC.

Vilakshan Singh said their efforts to bring back those who had left the party have yielded results, with the return of Harsh Dev Singh expected to boost the party further. Meanwhile, Hakikat Singh, general secretary of the Ganjoo-led faction, said theirs was a “duly elected group by the party’s working committee”.