Lok Sabha Polls: NC-PDP rift wide in open, Omar says, ‘No. 3 party has no right’, Mehbooba hits back
Lok Sabha elections. Both National Conference and Mehbooba mufti-led PDP are parties in INDIA bloc. "I have told you...
the party that is number 3 has no right to ask for a seat. If I had been told, before joining INDIA, we would have to weaken ourselves for another member, I would have never joined," said Omar Abdullah Omar cited the PDP's 2019 poll performance as the reason for not forging an alliance. The Anantnag seat is represented by NC's Hasnain Masoodi in the Lok Sabha.
Omar's swipe at the PDP underlined the rift between the two regional parties. Both parties have declared to contest the Lok Sabha polls on its own. Jammu and Kashmir sends five members to Lok Sabha.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has two members from Jammu while the National Conference holds all three seats of Kashmir Valley. Hours after Omar's remarks, Mehbooba Mufti responded and said Omar was responsible for breaking the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an alliance of regional parties. She also said PDP was down but certainly not out in Jammu and Kashmir.
PAGD or the Gupkar Alliance had come up as a united front of regional political parties, the NC and the PDP , against the BJP to collectively fight for the restoration of Article 370. Later the alliance contested won the District Development Council polls in. Also Read : PM Modi inaugurates Hazratbal shrine development project in Srinagar: The initiative and its significance Mehbooba Mufti, also former chief minister, is keen to contest from Anantnag seat but the National Conference wants to fight all three Kashmir seats, including Anantnag.
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