Congress attends Gupkar alliance meeting, pledges united front to stop the BJP
A senior leader of PAGD said that the alliance leadership decided to participate in the DDC polls as they didn’t want BJP to go unchallenged.
As the campaigning for the district development board elections started after nomination forms were submitted for the phase 1 of the polls, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) leadership decided to keep campaigning for these polls a low key affair. The PAGD held another round of meeting on Friday, also attended by Congress leaders, to discuss candidates for the subsequent phases of polls.
On Thursday, the PAGD released the first list of 27 candidates for DDC polls. Among the candidates who filed their nominations, 21 are from the National Conference, four are from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and two are from the People’s Conference.
A senior leader of PAGD said that the alliance leadership decided to participate in the polls as they didn’t want BJP to go unchallenged.
“The top leadership of the PAGD has decided to keep these polls a low key affair and campaigning will also be short,” he said adding that the PAGD grassroots workers will try to grab the maximum number of seats.
He admitted that there were some differences on a few seats but said the top leaders of all parties were ready for any “sacrifice”. “The top leadership wants to make this alliance one of the strongest forces, which will fight for the restoration of Article 370 and statehood,” he said wishing not to be named.
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Meanwhile on Friday, another meeting of PAGD was held at the residence of PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, which was also attended by two senior Congress leaders besides other members of the alliance. Sources said the leaders discussed names of candidates for the following phases of poll for the DDC.
Meanwhile, Congress vice president Ghulam Nabi Monga, who participated on behalf of the Congress, said his party is part of the alliance and it will fight BJP on all fronts. “We will contest this election to defeat the divisive forces.”
Besides the National Conference and the PDP, the Peoples Conference, the CPI (M), and the Awami National Conference are part of the PAGD. The National Conference and the PDP had stayed away from the panchayat polls in 2018. The People’s Conference however participated in the elections.