Party set to go it alone in elections
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 22: The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) today decided to undertake major initiative at Assembly constituencies and district levels to rejuvenate the party at grass-root even as it discussed preparations for upcoming Parliament and Assembly elections in the State though some senior leaders didn’t attend the meeting.
In its meeting chaired by PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, the PAC, called upon the party leaders to conduct tours across the State to remove misgivings, if any, among the people over the PDP especially its previous alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Prominent PAC members, who attended the meeting, included Muzaffar Hussain Baig, patron, Nizam-ud-Din Bhat, Abdul Rehman Veeri, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura and Rafi Mir among others.
However, Altaf Bukhari, Chaudhary Zulfkar, Javaid Mustafa Mir and Abdul Haq Khan, all former Ministers were conspicuous by their absence. Party sources said Bukhari and Zulfkar were out ot State and Khan wasn’t feeling well.
Admitting that non-implementation of ‘Agenda of Alliance’ (AoA), which the PDP had signed with the BJP while forming first-ever coalition Government between the two parties, was a major setback, the PDP decided to return to its “original agenda” including self-rule.
“The PAC, which lasted three hours over dinner tonight at Mehbooba’s residence, decided that since ‘Agenda of Alliance’ couldn’t be implemented due to BJP’s “rigid approach”, the party should return to its original agenda of self-rule and other core issues for resolution of Kashmir problem,” sources said, adding the PDP has decided to go to the people on the basis of its previous agenda in the Parliament and Assembly elections.
The PAC observed that it couldn’t implement the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ due to non-cooperation by the BJP.
“We had formed the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ with the BJP hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central Government would take initiative but this didn’t happen,” the PAC regretted reiterating that Modi regime didn’t turn out to be like that of Atal Behari Vajpayee on the basis of which the PDP had formed coalition Government with the PDP. The PAC decided to go to the people to brief them as to why they were unable to implement the AoA.
There was general view in the PAC that the PDP should go it alone in both Parliament and Assembly elections without entering into any pro-poll pact with any political party. “We should contest both the elections on all seats on our own strength,” the PAC observed.
The PDP, according to sources, was likely to field candidates for all six Lok Sabha and 87 Assembly seats of the State.
PDP’s arch political rival, the National Conference, has already declared that it will go alone in the elections.
Admitting that the PDP has suffered setbacks due to desertions by some former Ministers and ex-MLAs and their joining of National Conference and People’s Conference, the PDP senior leaders were, however, of the view that they would manage to overcome the reverses by going to the people and rejuvenating the party cadre well ahead of Parliament and Assembly elections.
The PDP leaders discussed roadmap ahead for the party including issues it should take in the Parliament and Assembly polls. There was threadbare deliberations over the issues, the insiders said.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti is visiting Jammu, the winter capital of the State, on three-day visit from Monday during which she will meet senior party leaders of different districts to chalk-out party strategy for Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
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