Lone’s party quits Gupkar alliance
People’s Conference cites breach of trust between partners for decision
People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of Jammu and Kashmir’s regional Opposition parties and their allies from the national Left parties, suffered a major setback on Tuesday as People’s Conference (PC), one of its important constituents, pulled out of it saying there has been a breach of trust between the partners.
It cited fielding of proxy candidates by some constituents in the recently held District Development
Council (DDC) elections as the main reason for its parting of the ways.
“There has been a breach of trust between partners which we believe is beyond remedy,” said PC chairman and former minister Sajad Gani Lone in a letter to the PAGD president Farooq Abdullah. He, however, assured Abdullah that the PC would continue to adhere to the objectives for which the alliance was forged.
‘Gupkar Declaration’ was a pledge for defending Article 370 and 35A by Kashmir’s mainstream parties which they took at a meeting held at
Abdullah’s residence along Srinagar’s Gupkar Road on August 4, 2019, a day before the state was stripped of its special status and split up into two Union Territories.
The alliance performed well in J&K’s maiden DDC elections by winning 110 out of the 278 seats last month.
However, Lone who was the official spokesman of the PAGD has complained that many of the alliance’s official nominees had to face serious issues due to the presence of proxy candidates in the fray.
“I am writing to you in reference to the recently held DDC elections and a spate of statements issued by leaders belonging to our party. The recurring theme of the statements was the fielding of proxy candidates by constituent parties against the officially mandated candidates of the PAGD,” he said in the letter.
He claimed that the predominant feeling in the PC meeting was that the PAGD sentiment at top was not emulated on the ground. He said that the sad reality that emerged was that 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,” the letter said.
Lone further said, “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&K deserved post August 5…we look at the statistics but out there on the ground people look at our actions and our intentions.”
Lone informed the PAGD president that it was difficult for the PC to stay on and pretend as if nothing had happened. “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,” he said adding “we will no longer be a part of the PAGD alliance.”