Gupkar Alliance dead and buried 4 months after birth

Kashmir’s Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), headed by the National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah, which was formed to take on the BJP, has evaporated after just four months of its effervescent formation on 20 October 2020.

Although there is just one day left for the election of chairpersons of the District Development Councils (DDCs), Abdullah is away in New Delhi to attend the winter session of Parliament while his second-in-command in Gupkar, PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, is busy touring Jammu.

Until late on Friday, there was no indication of any talks between the PAGD constituents to stop the BJP and its valley-based ally, Altaf Bukhari's Apni Party (AP), from occupying four of the five districts where polling is being held on Saturday to elect chairpersons and vice chairpersons. These include Srinagar, Shopian, Kulgam, Jammu and Kathua districts.

The PAGD's third key constituent, Sajad Lone's Peoples Conference (PC) has already broken away from the alliance and, reportedly, begun efforts to reclaim its liaison with the BJP government at the Centre.

Elections for all the 20 DDCs-for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir-were held in November-December 2020. With 14 constituencies in each district, polling was held with massive participation on all the 280 seats-140 each in Kashmir and Jammu-but the results on 22 December were declared for only 278 seats.