‘Had hoped Farooq Sahib would keep party interest aside’: Mehbooba pitches PDP against NC in Valley

The move will see the NC and the PDP — partners in the Opposition INDIA bloc — take on each other on the three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.

The NC and the PDP – the leading political players in the Valley – have been fierce rivals over the decades, who got together only after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019. They formed the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) in 2020 along with other local parties to jointly fight for the restoration of Kashmir’s special status.

Another INDIA partner, the Congress, which was keen on a seat-sharing deal between the NC and the PDP, has decided to contest only from the Jammu region. The Congress had wanted the NC to contest from two Valley seats, leaving Anantnag-Rajouri for PDP president Mehbooba Mufti.

“The situation in Jammu and Kashmir demanded that we move together in an alliance. But they (NC) didn’t leave any door open for us,” said Mehbooba, adding, “At the INDIA meeting in Mumbai, I had said that since (NC president) Farooq Abdullah is our senior leader, he will take a decision (on seat-sharing) and will do justice. I had hoped he would keep the party interest aside.”

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti in Srinagar, Wednesday. (PTI)

Referring to NC leader Omar Abdullah’s press conference, where he announced the NC candidates, she further said, “Omar Sahib’s statement: ‘Who is PDP, where does it stand?’, was very unfortunate. His tone was very harsh, and my workers felt disappointed and hurt.”

On Tuesday, Omar had said that as a constituent of the INDIA bloc, the PDP may not field candidates against the NC in Kashmir.

Mehbooba said if Omar had called her and conveyed his party’s position, perhaps they could have agreed in the larger interest of the people of J&K.

“What Omar Sahib said yesterday, he could have said two months ago,” she said. “He could have called me and said that they think their candidates can better represent Jammu and Kashmir in Parliament, or that their workers are not agreeing (to PDP candidates). Whatever the reason was, we could perhaps have agreed in the larger interest.”

Mocking Omar, Mehbooba asked why the NC still needs the PDP’s support. “Who are we? What would our support do?” she said. “Omar Sahib doesn’t count us anywhere. He says you are nobody. So we will field candidates, and in our own small way, let the people decide.”

Reacting to the PDP decision to contest all three Valley seats, Omar said it is the PDP’s choice and that the NC was keeping doors open for an alliance in the Assembly elections, whenever they are held.

“Even if they decide to field candidates on (J&K’s) all five seats, it is their choice. I can’t stop them,” Omar said. “When the District Development Council (DDC) elections happened in 2020, we had proposed that candidates should be announced on the basis of the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. They (PDP) disagreed and said it should be on the basis of the 2014 Assembly elections. So, in this parliamentary poll, the same formula was applied. Wherever we had won, we decided to field candidates.”

The NC had won all three seats in the Valley in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, while the PDP had won 28 Assembly seats in 2014 to emerge as the single largest party in the 87-member J House of the erstwhile J&K state.

Omar also said his party had conveyed to the PDP that it wants to keep the option of seat-sharing open for the Assembly polls. “If Mehbooba ji has decided that she is fielding from all five seats, perhaps she doesn’t want any alliance for the Assembly elections?” Omar asked. “What can I say? We had kept the door open and if they closed it, it was not our fault.”

The decisions of the NC and the PDP to fight against each other seem to have dealt a body blow to the PAGD. It will also open a window of opportunity for the BJP and smaller parties — dubbed the “BJP’s proxies” by both the NC and the PDP — in the Kashmir fray. While a triangular fight could help Sajad Lone of the Peoples’ Conference in Baramulla, it could also give an edge to the BJP-backed candidate in Anantnag-Rajouri.