Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 8: Third Front today announced that it will together contest on 40 Assembly segments in Kashmir and will go with a separate manifesto before the electorate.
The Front which is an amalgam of smaller political parties floated by long-time independent legislators, Ghulam Hassan Mir, Yousuf Tarigami, Hakim Yasin and Er Rashid, will rally for the votes in the coming elections.
“We will go with a separate manifesto and a common minimum programme to seek votes for the Assembly seats,” Hakim Yasin, who heads the People’s Democratic Party, told Excelsior.
Yasin said that the amalgam would not support any major political party either “openly or tacitly”.
“No party should expect support from us in the polls. We will field our candidates on 40 Assembly constituencies,” he said.
Mir’s Democratic Party Nationalist (DPN) this week joined the Front while Rashid’s Awami Ittihad Party (AIP) joined today.
Yasin said that the Front will “throw surprise” in the coming days as many big names are joining them.
“A lot of like-minded people are in touch with us and they will publicly join the amalgam in the coming days,” he said.
While the State Congress party president Saif-ud-Din Soz had said that they won’t field candidates against Tarigami, Mir and Yasin, however, Yasin said they won’t support any party in the polls.
“We will not forge any pre-poll alliance with the Congress party,” he said.
Significantly, the Front leaders today held a meeting in which they decided to fight together in the polls to give people time to vote effectively and provide them alternatives.
Rashid, Mir, Tarigami and Hakim are themselves contesting the coming polls from Langate, Gulmarg, Kulgam and Khansahab Assembly segments respectively.
The Front said that they will chalk out a strategy in this week to hold rallies, and campaigns in the Valley for their candidates.
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