Early Times Report
Jammu, July 29: As efforts to unite opposition parties ahead of the Assembly elections received a severe blow after former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah expressed his inability to attend the proposed meeting, some political parties are seriously thinking of formulating another front without the main opposition party the National Conference.
Highly placed sources said that some opposition leaders have mooted the idea of formulating a non-NC opposition front because the main opposition party (NC) has not shown much enthusiasm for the August 7 meeting which was proposed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary M Y Tarigami.
Sources said that encouraged by the party’s performance in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, the National Conference leadership is seriously thinking of contesting Assembly elections on its own. Sources said that there is a feeling among the opposition parties that the National Conference will not encourage any alliance because the party (NC) leadership is not ready to leave any seat for any opposition party in Kashmir Valley.
Sources said that some leaders have taken the initiative to bring Congress, PDP, and other groups on a single platform to provide an alternative to BJP and NC in Jammu and Kashmir.
As reported earlier, the effort of Tarigami to bring all opposition leaders on a single platform received a severe setback as the National Conference president and former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah expressed his “inability” to attend the scheduled meeting on August 7.
“National Conference president Dr Farooq Abdullah expressed his inability to a NC had not shown much enthusiasm for the August 7 meeting which was proposed by the CPI (M) general secretary M Y Tarigami.
There is a feeling among the opposition parties that the National Conference will not encourage any alliance as the party leadership is not ready to leave any seat.
Some leaders have taken the initiative to bring Congress, PDP, and other groups on a single platform to provide an alternative to BJP and NC in J&K.
Tarigami's effort to bring all opposition leaders on a single platform received a severe setback as Dr Farooq expressed his “inability” to attend the scheduled meeting.
No fresh date for the meeting, originally scheduled for August 7, has been finalized.
It was CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami who took the initiative and called all opposition leaders to discuss the prevailing political situation in J&K, especially the delegation of more powers to the Lt Governor, which they believe dilutes the authority of the Chief Minister and the J&K Legislative Assembly.
It was announced on Friday that the meeting would discuss this issue in detail and devise a joint strategy on August 7 in Jammu.
Earlier with much publicity, the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), popularly known as Gupkar Alliance, was formed in 2019 by six political parties with the pledge of perseverance and steadfastness toward the restoration of Article 370. This resolution was written in the Alliance’s declaration where the political parties stated there would be “nothing about us without us,” meaning they would stick together come what may.
“We want to assure people that all our political activities will be subservient to the sacred goal of reverting to the status of J&K as it existed before August 2019,” read PAGD’s declaration.
Within a couple of months after its formation, PAGD received a severe jolt when Sajad Lone of the Peoples’ Conference, left the alliance. Lone charged both NC and PDP with fielding proxy candidates against the officially mandated candidates of the alliance during the District Development Councils (DDCs) elections. He called these actions “a breach of trust”. | 