After the National Conference declared not to leave any seat of Kashmir Valley for coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Peoples Conference are striving hard to maintain opposition unity in Jammu and Kashmir to face the BJP.
CPI (M) leader M Y Tarigami, who is the spokesperson of the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), has pledged to mend the emerging divisions among its members.
Tarigami admitted the existing disagreements among the alliance partners and affirmed his dedication to resolving these disparities. He emphasized that the PAGD is not merely a political alliance for elections but a coalition formed for a greater cause.
Tarigami reiterated his commitment to fostering unity within the alliance, highlighting the necessity of solidarity and cooperation among its constituents in tackling the numerous challenges facing Jammu and Kashmir.
"I am not here to attribute blame. The issues for which this platform was established must remain at the forefront of our collective efforts", Tarigami said.
Awami National Conference leader meets Mehbooba Mufti
Amid efforts of the CPI(M) leader to ensure unity among opposition parties, the leader of the Awami National Conference Muzaffar Shah met with PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti.
After meeting with Mehbooba Mufti, Muzaffar Shah claimed that PAGD is still alive and efforts are being made to ensure unity among opposition parties.
"I am hopeful that crises will be resolved because discussions are still going on", he said.
Muzaffar Shah is a cousin of Omar Abdullah and a member of the PADGD.
Omar asks Cong to accommodate PDP from its quota
National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah reiterated that his party will not give any of the three seats in Kashmir Valley to PDP.
"If Congress wants, it can give him either two seats in Jammu or one seat in Ladakh", Omar said.
NC has already announced that it will contest all three seats in Kashmir and discussions are going on with Congress on two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh.
The former Chief Minister also took a dig at Congress on the issue of seat sharing, saying that they are free to give any seat of their share to PDP, but NC will not give up the seat it had won last time.
Abdullah also said that there is little chance of the PDP winning the three seats of Jammu, Udhampur, and Ladakh.
PAGD was formed to protect interests of J&K residents
Important to mention here that with much publicity, the PAGD 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," reads 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 DDC elections. He called these actions "a breach of trust".
The recent discord within the PAGD escalated when the NC and the PDP clashed over the allocation of the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, citing the PDP's underperformance in the 2019 elections.
