J&K: National Conference’s Decision to Contest 3 Lok Sabha Seats Exposes Fissures Within INDIA Bloc

The National Conference’s (NC) decision to contest from three out of six Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir has irked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), its Gupkar alliance constituent, raising clouds of uncertainty over the fate of a ‘unified fight’ against the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir.

Out of the six Lok Sabha seats in J&K and Ladakh, the PDP, which has suffered a series of desertions in the recent past, is reportedly eager to contest the upcoming election from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, the home turf of party chief Mehbooba Mufti.

Former chief minister Omar Abdullah’s announcement that his party would contest all three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir has exposed the fissures within the INDIA alliance in J&K, with the PDP chief also suggesting that her party might go solo in the upcoming election.

Speaking with reporters in Srinagar on Friday (March 9), Abdullah said that his party has conveyed to the Congress, which heads the INDIA alliance, that there was ‘not much scope’ for negotiations (with the PDP) on seat sharing in J&K.

‘We didn’t out the PDP. The situation has kept the party out of this election,’ he said.

‘I have told the (INDIA) alliance that our doors are open (for seat sharing with the PDP) in the assembly elections but that will depend on how they behave in the Lok Sabha polls,’ he said.

Answering a query that the PDP was eager to put up its candidate on the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat, Abdullah said that it was an ‘illogical’ demand.

‘Which (brand of) politics says that the parties which stood at number one and number two in the last parliamentary election should cede the contest to a party which was at number three, and that too on a seat where their influence is nowhere to be seen,’ he said.

NC’s Hasnain Masoodi is the sitting Lok Sabha member from the Anantnag parliamentary seat that was rearranged to include Rajouri and most areas of the Poonch district across Pir Panjal in Jammu, following the 2022 delimitation exercise in J&K.

‘We won the Anantnag seat (in the 2019 polls) and the Congress was in the second spot,’ Abdullah said.

‘We are not coercing anyone. If Sonia Gandhi or Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra or Rahul Gandhi contest from there, we will happily vacate it without hesitation. But since we have won the seat, we will not leave it for any other party. It is our right,’ he said.

Expressing displeasure at the tweets of Mehbooba’s daughter, Iltija Mufti, without naming her, Abdullah said that the PDP leaders, despite being part of the Gupkar alliance, have targeted the NC more than they criticised the BJP during the party’s annual Raising Day function in the last two years.

‘They target the National Conference in their speeches and tweets and social media. We are now being dragged into the elections in Pakistan also. What kind of a coalition dharma is this?’ he said.

‘They joined hands with Ghulam Nabi Azad to target Farooq Abdullah (NC president) and our party through Twitter, using the platform of the PDP. Maintaining the sanctity of the coalition is not only our responsibility. Unless those who have a habit of targeting NC mend their ways, they shouldn’t keep any big hopes from us,’ the NC vice-president said.

Abdullah was referring to the recent tweets by Iltija, who is also Mehbooba’s media advisor.

In one of the tweets, the PDP chief’s daughter, without taking names, observed that the rigging in Pakistan elections, which has kept Imran Khan’s party out of the government, had ‘uncanny similarities’ with the ‘mass electoral fraud’ of the 1987 assembly elections in J&K.

Many historians and writers maintain that the NC played a major role in the rigging of the 1987 elections in J&K, which is widely believed to have become a starting point for the full-blown armed insurgency that is in its 35th year now.

In another tweet, Iltija posted a sarcastic emoji to mock the NC after former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad claimed that the party was seeking an appointment with the PMO only in night hours. Both these tweets were posted by Sarah Hayat Shah, an NC spokesperson, on X (formerly Twitter), after Omar’s media interaction.

Reacting to Omar’s ‘unfortunate’ remarks, Mufti told reporters in Srinagar that she had earlier conveyed to the INDIA alliance leadership in New Delhi that the NC president was the ‘tallest leader’ in J&K who should take the final call on the seat-sharing issue.

‘A big decision has been taken today and the announcement [by Abdullah] is a serious setback to the people’s cause and unity. What the government led by the BJP couldn’t do, a PAGD [People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration] member has unfortunately achieved it. The party’s decision has changed goalposts. Where we could come together to fight the bigger enemy, today we are face to face with each other,’ she said, raising questions about the fate of the Gupkar alliance.

Saying that her party would pull out of the upcoming election for the ’cause of unity’, the PDP chief accused the Union government of making attempts to break the Gupkar alliance ‘because it is the face of resistance against the BJP’ in J&K. ‘The PDP may be down but we are not out,’ Mufti said.

‘We will take our case to the people of J&K and let them decide. It is important to take the voice of J&K to the parliament in Delhi. The voices from J&K will be watched in the parliament by not just the people of J&K but more than 20 crore Muslims whose houses and mosques are being demolished, and over 80 crore Hindus who believe in the idea of Gandhi’s India,’ she said, adding that the PDP would make the announcement on Lok Sabha polls after consultations with the Congress.