Flirting with the idea of promoting soft separatism in the upcoming Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Mehbooba Mufti Sunday welcomed Syed Salim Geelani, former Hurriyat member into the party fold.
Before taking the plunge into mainstream politics Geelani served jailed separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah. He also remained a general council member of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Soon after joining the party, Geelani told reporters, "PDP is a party which talks about democratic rights, human rights and political rights of people. It talks about a political solution to the Kashmir problem … So I felt it was the right party to join".
Geelani also maintained the Kashmir issue can only be resolved politically. "Gun cannot be a solution. This is the only way to save lives that are being lost to violence."
Welcoming Syed Salim Geelani Mehbooba, Mufti said it was good that the former separatist Leader wants a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem.
"We requested Geelani to contest the elections on a PDP ticket but he has expressed inability to do so. He said someone else should get a chance to contest," she added. Former Congress leader Altaf Ahmad Malik was among several other leaders to join the PDP.
On the other hand, National Conference leader Babu Jagjiwan Lal and former PDP chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari on Sunday joined Congress.
JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra welcomed both the Leaders into the party's fold.
On Saturday, two former MLAs and a rights activist - Mumtaz Khan (Gulabgarh), Abdul Rahim Rather (Kokernag), and Irfan Hafeez Lone — joined the Congress.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janta Party was still struggling to put its own house in order after some of the ticket aspirants threatened to contest the Assembly polls as independent candidates after they were denied the mandate by offering tickets to turncoats from the other political parties.
J&K BJP Chief Ravinder Raina, who is being chased by the media on this issue, tried to play down the protests and resignations by his party Leaders and workers over the selection of candidates, saying he is confident the BJP will form the Government on its own.
Giving momentum to its poll campaign the BJP on Sunday flagged off six (6) vans to make people aware of the BJP Government's achievements, various welfare schemes, and development works, both completed and ongoing besides future programmes of the party.
The 6 vans were flagged by Union Minister and J&K election Incharge, G Krishna Reddy in the presence of many senior Leaders of the party. These vans will cover each nook and corner of each Assembly segment going to polls in the first phase.
They vans are equipped with high-tech audio and video systems, BJP's campaigning material i.e. pamphlets mentioning achievements, various welfare schemes, and development works carried out in the ten years besides BJP government's future programmes.
