Amid reports that Delimitation Commission is going to submit its final report within days, former Chief Minister and vice president of the National Conference Omar Abdullah on Wednesday mooted the idea that all constituents of the Peoples' Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) would contest the coming Assembly elections jointly.
"These are my personal views. If someone asks me, I would suggest that the PAGD should go together in the polls ahead to keep BJP and its A and B teams away," a local news agency quoting Omar Abdullah reported.
Omar Abdullah was interacting with reporters on the sidelines of the youth convention of the National Conference at Srinagar.
Omar, however, said that the final decision in this regard has to be taken by the leadership of PAGD. "I am only giving my personal views", he clarified.
Sources said that the top leadership of the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has already started the discussions to fight coming elections jointly to counter the growing influence of the BJP.
It is all due to fear of the BJP that leaders of both parties are ready to sacrifice some seats to jointly fight the Saffron Party.
PAGD was formed to protect the "special status" of J&K
With much publicity, the PAGD was formed in October 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 will stick together come what may.
Within a couple of months after its formation, PAGD had received a severe jolt when Sajad Lone of 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"
Mehbooba's meeting with Sonia fuels rumours of Cong joining PAGD
Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti's "courtesy call" with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has fuelled speculation of a grand alliance of all non-BJP parties before assembly elections in J&K.
According to reports the aim of Mehbooba Mufti's meeting with Sonia Gandhi was to convince the Congress president to join the grand alliance in J&K to defeat BJP.
Along with NC, the PDP president is also trying to rope in Congress party in the alliance to effectively fight BJP in Jammu province by putting a joint opposition candidate on all seats.
Mehbooba Mufti met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the latter's residence here on April 18. Mufti spent some time with Gandhi and is learned to have discussed the current political situation in the country with the Congress president.
