J-K Congress loses 2 key municipal bodies in south and north Kashmir

Congress J-K president, Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the party lost control over two municipal councils in Baramulla and Anantnag.

The Congress has lost control over two important municipal bodies in south and north Kashmir after presidents of Baramulla and Anantnag councils joined the Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari recently. The Congress has alleged that their members were put under pressure to quit the party, a charge rejected by the party rebels.

Congress flags at a rally. (File photo)

Last week, president of Anantnag municipal council, Hilal Shah, joined the Apni Party along with 21 councillors. Shah and 16 of these councillors had won the local bodies elections in 2018 on a Congress ticket. Hilal Shah had contested several elections as a Congress party member in the past.

Apni Party president, Altaf Bukhari welcomed him to the party at a function in Srinagar and said it will help make the party strong in south Kashmir which is considered a bastion of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

"My workers decided to join the Apni party for the sake of the development of our areas. After we met the Apni Party leadership, we found that the party is more people-friendly than others," said Shah.

Shah joined Congress in 2009 and unsuccessfully contested against former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the 2014 assembly elections. "I am a common man, I don’t have any political background. I contested my first election in 2007 as an independent candidate and joined the Congress two years later. My workers are only concerned about the development of Anantnag and nothing else," he added.

With Shah’s entry, the Apni Party now has a foothold in south Kashmir's urban areas of Anantnag town. Earlier, municipal council president, Baramulla, Omar Azhar Kakroo, who belonged to the family of old Congress loyalists, joined Apni Party along with nine councillors. Now, the Congress, which had 10 members in Baramulla Municipal Council is left with a lone member.

Omar Azhar Kakroo said he and his associates left the Congress because of its local leadership. "The party didn’t have any strong leader so we were forced to leave the party." He said there was no pressure on him or others from any quarter to join the Apni Party.

Apni Party senior leader, Shoaib Lone said that Congress was now a defunct party. "People were leaving the party as its leadership was in disarray and fighting with each other." Lone, a former legislator who resigned from Congress last year, said that for these municipal leaders, the Apni Party was a natural choice. "Our party president is accessible and is always aware of the problems of party workers. The councillors who joined our party wanted to work for their people, so they decided to join us."

Congress J-K president, Ghulam Ahmad Mir said the party lost control over two municipal councils in Baramulla and Anantnag. "The councillors and presidents were given threats by various agencies and were forced to join the Apni Party. Influential people intervened and forced our members to join the new party," Mir said. He added that time will prove that Congress members were forcibly made to join the Apni Party on the pretext of security, government accommodation and protection from false cases. “This has become a routine in the country," he claimed.

Mir said the Congress still controls half a dozen councils in Kashmir. "The Almighty knows they will try to control these councils by force," he said.