Afaq Bhat
Srinagar, Nov 6: The Jammu and Kashmir government announcing the District Development Council elections has put the political parties in the Valley in a quandary.
The big question that has arisen is, will the Valley based parties that have formed the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) contest these polls or not?
The political parties, including National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Conference, Awami National Conference and others that have come together to seek restoration of August 4, 2019, position will have to sit together to take a call over this issue.
After the PAGD was formed its leaders had announced that the alliance won’t contest any elections till the “larger goal” is achieved and their fight is not for coming into power. “If these parties decide to stay away from the DDC polls they would once again lose a chance to make a comeback. It will provide an opportunity to BJP and other newcomers to make inroads into the power corridors. The forthcoming DDC elections may not be that big but these are significant due to these being the maiden elections after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. These elections can set the tone and tenor for the big events which are likely to follow in coming months,” an analyst told Precious Kashmir.
A politician said, “We are unable to understand how the government has devised the new electoral system. An attempt has been made to create one layer after another. It appears that we will have a public representative in every lane. The decision of whether to participate in these elections or not lies with the PAGD leadership.”
An observer said, “The Valley based parties participating in these polls directly look difficult. We may have a situation where the candidates affiliated with these parties may contest as independents. Political parties are aware of the fact that if they remain away from the power corridors for a longtime, they may find it hard to sustain that too in the changed political scenario in J&K UT.”
He said, “The political parties that have come together in Kashmir at this point of time know it very well that they don’t have an option other than putting up a united front.”
The observer said, “It will be interesting to see how the Congress Party will react to the development. Will it contest the DDC polls or not. The party has stayed away from PAGD but has dropped enough hints that it cannot survive alone. All these questions will be answered in the next few days. We just have to wait and watch.”
DDC polls: To participate or not, political parties in dilemma
