The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Monday toughened its stand on the issue of participating in the Assembly polls, saying they will do so only after the restoration of the full statehood to Jammu & Kashmir.

The constituents of the alliance also claimed that they were disappointed with the “outcome” of the all-party meeting held by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 24. 

The timing of the announcement made by the PAGD has assumed significance as it comes 12 days after the meeting and on the eve of the maiden visit of the members of the Delimitation Commission, headed by (Retd) Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, from Tuesday.

The leaders of the PAGD assembled at the residence of Dr Farooq Abdullah late on Sunday and remained closeted for several hours to deliberate on the issue of appearing before the Delimitation Commission and the fallout of all-party meet. 

The meeting was attended by vice-chairperson Mehbooba Mufti, MY Tarigami, Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Javed Mustafa Mir and Muzaffar Ahmed Shah.

As per the political grapevine, differences have surfaced among the constituents of the PAGD over participating in the Delimitation exercise and the forthcoming Assembly polls. As of now the leaders of the National Conference are expected to meet members of the Delimitation commission while PDP has not made clear its stand till late Monday.

A brief statement issued by PAGD spokesperson MY Tarigami on Monday said, “PAGD reiterated its commitment to fight together to reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J&K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal”.

PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible, said the statement.

“All the members of the PAGD expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the Delhi meeting especially at the absence of any substantial Confidence Building Measures such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails & taking concrete steps to end the siege & atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019. This would have initiated the much needed process of reaching out to the people of J&K who are the biggest stakeholders & sufferers of the J&K problem,” read the statement.

“As far as restoration of statehood is concerned, it has been BJP’s commitment on the floor of the Parliament & they must honour their word. So any assembly election must be held only after restoration of full statehood for J&K. To this end the PAGD has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K with a view to take a common position on the issue.”