Internal bickering in the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) came to the fore on Tuesday after People's Conference Chairman Sajjad Lone announced the decision to pull out of the alliance, almost a month after the announcement of District Development Council election results.
The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration was floated by the Kashmir based mainstream political parties ahead of the DDC polls. The PAGD contested the DDC polls on the slogan of restoring the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and revoking Abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A.
Sajjad Lone, who was made spokesman of the alliance ahead of the DDC polls, also shot off a three page letter to the Chairman of the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration Dr Farooq Abdullah citing reasons behind the pull out.
According to the letter circulated in the media by the People's Conference, Sajjad Lone wrote, “There has been a breach of trust between partners which we believe is beyond remedy”.
“The majoritarian view in our party is that we should pull out of the alliance in an amicable manner rather than waiting for things to get messier. And I am confirming that we will no longer be a part of the PAGD alliance”. Sharing his angst, Sajjad further wrote, “We fought against each other in Kashmir province not against the perpetrators of August 5,2019.
And those who perpetrated August 5 and their minions are now vocally gleeful “Sajjad wrote in the letter. Exposing the facade of unity in the PAGD Sajjad said, “in majority of the places the party fielding the candidate on behalf of PAGD was left to fend for itself and secured the votes that his party managed.
In most places other parties were silent bystanders or worst compounded the problem by fielding proxy candidates''.
“On the face of it, PAGD won these elections unambiguously having won the maximum number of seats. We can’t hide statistics and apart from the number of seats that PAGD won, another important statistical variable in the context of August 5 is the number of votes polled against the PAGD.
We believe that the votes polled against the PAGD are majorly the votes cast by proxies of PAGD constituent parties against official PAGD candidates. And the net outcome of selectively voting for and against PAGD is a very poor vote share. This is certainly not the vote share that people of J and K deserved post August 5”, Sajjad Lone wrote.
People's Conference, one of the constituents of PAGD, had won a total number of 8 seats in the DDC polls while Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) had won maximum number of 67 seats followed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which managed to secure 27 seats. Despite contesting the DDC polls under the banner of PAGD, the party constituents had failed to project a united face after the announcement of poll results. No formal event was organised to 'unitedly' celebrate the victory of the PAGD candidates.
Referring to the internal audit within his own party, Sajjad said, “It is difficult for us to stay on and pretend as if nothing has happened.
“ This alliance needed sacrifice. Every party had to sacrifice on the ground in terms of giving space to fellow allies. No party is willing to cede space, no party is willing to sacrifice” added Sajjad Lone.
''I would however want to add that we are divorcing from the alliance not its objectives. We will continue to adhere to the objectives that we set out when this alliance was made”, Sajjad Lone concluded.