'PDP will extend complete support to Congress, NC if…': Mehbooba Mufti on J-K polls

The PDP will extend complete support to the Congress-NC alliance and leave all seats in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections to the coalition if it is ready to accept the party’s agenda, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday.

Mehbooba also ruled out an alliance with the BJP, with which the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier run a coalition government.

“Forget about alliance and seat-sharing, if the Congress and the National Conference (NC) are ready to accept our agenda — that resolution of the Kashmir issue is necessary and on opening of routes — we will tell them to contest on all the seats and we will follow you,” she said.

“Because, for me, the resolution of the Kashmir problem is much more important than anything else,” she added when asked if the Congress had approached the PDP for an alliance.

Mehbooba was talking to reporters following the release of the PDP’s manifesto for the assembly elections.

NC chief Farooq Abdullah has announced a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going to the polls for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

Polls to the 90-member assembly will be held in three phases — September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.

Mehbooba, the PDP president, said the dignity of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, which “was being trampled on”, was important for her party.

“Whether you give me three or four seats, it does not mean anything to me. When we entered into an alliance with either the Congress or the BJP, it was on our agenda. The NC and the Congress have not entered into an alliance on any agenda but for seat-sharing and we will not talk of such an alliance, which only talks about seat-sharing,” she said.

“Our alliance should be based on an agenda and our agenda is to find the resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir issue… No doubt within the Constitution of this country but a resolution,” she added.

Asked if there could be a post-poll alliance between the PDP and the BJP, Mehbooba said, “There is nothing like that. We had joined hands with the BJP government and not the party and we had put a condition that they would not touch Article 370.” The PDP in its manifesto promised to pursue the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood and advocate for diplomatic initiatives between India and Pakistan.

It also aims to establish full connectivity across the Line of Control for trade and social exchange.

The manifesto also talks about striving for the revocation of the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as well as its commitment to revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir were last held in November 2014, resulting in the PDP and the BJP forming a coalition government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

His death in 2016 led to his daughter Mehbooba taking up the mantle of leadership as chief minister of the coalition government.

The BJP pulled out of the government in June 2018 and the state was put under governor’s rule.

On August 5, 2019, the BJP-led Centre abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and reorganised the erstwhile state into two Union territories — Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)

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