Farooq Abdullah says doors of PAGD not closed

On Wednesday, National Conference (NC), which is a leading constituent of the PAGD announced that it would contest on all the 90 seats of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly "whenever polls are held" strongly hinting towards the party's exit from the united front. Since its formation on August 13 2021, the PAGD has held dozens of meetings together and vowed to fight democratically and peacefully for restoration of special status and statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, reports ETV Bharat's Mir Farhat.

Srinagar: Just a day after the National Conference said it would independently fight on all 90 seats of J&K Assembly elections triggering speculations over the disintegration of constituents of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a united front of J&K political parties formed in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, National Conference president and chairman PAGD, Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said that the "doors of the PAGD are not closed".

On Wednesday, National Conference (NC), which is a leading constituent of the PAGD announced that it would contest on all the 90 seats of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly "whenever polls are held" strongly hinting towards the party's exit from the united front. The announcement to fight on all seats independently was made by the NC in a statement issued after a meeting of its Provincial Committee presided over by former chief minister and NC Vice President Omar Abdullah.

With this announcement, NC has put an end to any possibility of jointly contesting the assembly elections with other constituents of PAGD. However, Farooq while talking to reporters on the sidelines of his condolence visit to a family friend in uptown Srinagar, said the "decision of contesting assembly elections in alliance will be taken only when elections are announced".

"In a democracy, all have their opinions so have my party members. A democratic party can pass any resolution, but a final decision will be taken only when elections are announced in Jammu and Kashmir. Taking any decision about elections at this time will be meaningless and that will also depend on the situation at that time," he said.

Significantly, Farooq had on July 5 said that the PAGD will jointly contest the Assembly elections. Speaking to the media on the sidelines of an event in Srinagar, Farooq had said, “Yes, we will contest together, we won't fight alone (on an individual party basis),” while replying to a question about the strategy of the PAGD for the polls.

Farooq said that those who left the PAGD “were never part of it as they had joined the alliance with the intention of breaking the alliance”. He said that the environment was conducive for the elections and appealed to the people to be patient. “A time will come when Allah Almighty will help the people to get out of the current situation. We want peace. We want to move forward with peace. We want animosity to end. Only through love will the country develop and diversity needs to be protected," he had said.

The NC in its Wednesday's press statement after the provincial meeting said the participants "demanded immediate course correction from PAGD constituents" adding it will contest assembly elections on all the 90 new seats which were carved after the delimitation. Reacting to the NC's move, Peoples Democratic Party spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said that PAGD was "conceived for a much larger cause than just an electoral alliance".

"If some constituent of the Alliance has reservations for any kind of electoral alliance, that will not impact our unity for the larger goal," he said. The PAGD is an amalgam of mainstream political parties which included NC, PDP, and smaller parties Awami National Conference, CPIM, formed on August 13 2021 for restoration of Article 370 abrogated by the BJP government at the Centre on August 5, 2019.

Since its formation, the amalgam has held dozens of meetings together and vowed to fight democratically and peacefully for the restoration of the special status and statehood of Jammu and Kashmir.