COURTESY HT NOV 8

Gupkar alliance to contest local body polls in J&K

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti with NC leaders Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah in Jammu on Saturday. PTI
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

ravi.khajuria@htlive.com

JAMMU : The seven mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, that are a part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), have decided to unitedly contest the upcoming district development council (DDC) elections starting December 1 in the Union territory.

Making the announcement on Saturday, alliance spokesperson Sajad Ghani Lone said, “We have unanimously decided that we will fight these elections unitedly, despite the abruptness of timing.” The decision was taken at a meeting of the alliance members, including the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at NC president Farooq Abdullah’s residence in Jammu.

Former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader M Y Tarigami also attended the meeting. Elections to DDCs and vacant posts of sarpanch and panch will be held in eight phases from December 1 to 24 in Jammu and Kashmir, according to a notification issued by the J&K Election Commission on Friday. This would be the first electoral exercise in J&K since the effective abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state into two Union territories on August 5 last year.

“All of a sudden, they (government) sprung a surprise and are going to finish the task within a month. But this space is too sacred to be left to invaders. This is the most sacred space in democracy and we will not allow it to be marauded. We are all going to fight together,” Lone told mediapersons in Jammu.

Reacting to the PAGD decision, president of the J&K unit of the BJP Ravinder Raina said that it was BJP versus “Gupkar Gang”. “It is BJP versus Gupkar gang. They were thrown out of power in the past by the people and they will bite the dust this time too. They will be politically decimated,” Raina said