7 parties cobble up alliance in Kashmir
Farooq Abdullah to lead Gupkar alliance, Mehbooba to be deputy
Seven mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday gave a formal shape to their recently cobbled alliance for the restoration of Article 370, electing National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah as its chairman and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti as vice- chairperson, and asserted that theirs was “not an antinational” grouping.
Veteran CPM leader MY Tarigami was elected as the convener while Lok Sabha member from South Kashmir Hasnain Masoodi would be the coordinator of the conglomerate known as Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration ( PAGD). Sajjad Gani Lone of People’s Conference would be the spokesman for the amalgam.
After a meeting held at Mehbooba’s house yesterday, Abdullah, who turned 84 earlier this week, said the alliance is fighting for the restoration of special status to Jammu and Kashmir and is an “anti- BJP platform” and not an antinational amalgam. “I want to tell you that this is false
propaganda by the BJP that the PAGD is antinational. I want to tell them that this is not true. There is no doubt that it is antiBJP, but it is not antinational,” he told reporters.
Abdullah alleged that the BJP has tried to break the federal structure through acts like the abrogation of Article 370 and dividing Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories. “They have tried to destroy the Constitution of the country, they have tried to divide the nation, to break the federal structure which we saw what they did on August 5 last year,” the NC president said.—