INDIA bloc ‘facing challenges’, as does Gupkar group

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, March 10

Even as a major rift in the INDIA block emerged when Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti and National Conference’s Omar Abdullah recently traded barbs, the meltdown of the alliance of Kashmir-based parties — People’s Alliance For Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) — appears to have started much before that, say analysts.

Recently, dealing a blow to the INDIA alliance of Opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the NC announced that it would contest alone all three seats in Kashmir. Both the NC and the PDP are also a part of PAGD that has vowed to work for restoration of special status of J&K. It was after the tussle between the NC and the PDP over sharing of parliamentary seats recently which made it clear that the INDIA bloc in the UT was going the same way the PAGD had gone a few years ago, the experts say.

Both Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had criticised each other’s party in separate press conferences in Srinagar recently. The NC has made it clear that it will not leave the Anantnag constituency for the PDP in upcoming polls which has infuriated Mufti.

After the Centre announced scrapping of Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two UTs — J&K and Ladakh — in August 2019, the Kashmir-based parties, including the NC, the PDP, Sajad Lone-led People’s Conference, the J&K People’s Movement (JKPM), the Awami National Conference and the CPM, formed the PAGD in October 2020 and announced their plan to contest the District Development Council (DDC) polls together a month later. But the PAGD began disintegrating brick by brick after its members fielded proxy candidates for many seats in the DDC elections.

The first member which parted ways was Sajad Lone who claimed that the PAGD parties fielded proxy candidates against each other in many areas of Valley. He left the alliance in January 2021.

Another member of the alliance, JKPM, led by bureaucrat-turned-politician-turned-bureaucrat Shah Faesal left the alliance in July 2022.

One of the major founding leaders of the PDP – Muzaffar Hussain Baig – who was among the political leaders who had met at Farooq’s residence on August 4, 2019 had quit the party in November 2020, months after he was awarded Padma Bhushan.

Altaf Bukhari, chief of the Apni Party, posted on X, attacking the “dynastic political parties” of Kashmir. “After the constitutional developments of August 2019, these cronies joined each other and made an unfounded alliance under the banner of the so-called PAGD. After several years of hide and seek, they have disdainfully fallen apart and this momentarily bonhomie turned as a sheer farce and their assurances hollow to the very core,” he stated.

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