National Conference president Farooq Abdullah  |  Photo Credit: ANI
New Delhi: The National Conference may fight the next Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in coalition with the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD). Party president Farooq Abdullah who also happens to be the head of the five-party alliance recently indicated that he was certain they would come together to take on “communal forces”.
The former Union minister and three-time chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir told news agency PTI that the way forward was to “unite communities rather than dividing them”. Hitting out at the BJP, the NC leader said that the present government needed to “realise” India’s secular nature and follow the Preamble of the Indian Constitution.
“I am sure when the elections come, we’ll sit down together again to defeat the divisive and communal forces,” he assured while talking about the members of the Gupkar alliance.
The PAGD comprising the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M), Awami National Conference, and the Peoples Movement had been put together in October 2020. It seeks the restoration of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir that had been revoked by the Centre in August 2019.
While it remains unclear when elections will take place in the northeastern union territory, the Delimitation Commission had recently met with leaders of several parties. Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah had indicated that delimitation in J&K would be followed by elections and then the restoration of statehood. The recommendations of the Commission however have not found favour with many of the political parties in the Valley.
More specifically, the Commission had proposed six additional seats for the Jammu region and one for Kashmir. At the same time, nine seats have been proposed for Scheduled Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes. Following the meeting attended by Abdullah and other party leaders, NC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said that the party expressed “unreserved resentment” over the draft of the Delimitation Commission.
“We have clearly expressed our resentment over the draft of the Delimitation Commission, the biased process of seat-sharing. The party will NOT be a signatory to this report,” the party had added via its official Twitter handle.