Will support NC-Congress if they adopt PDP agenda: Mehbooba Mufti

The Peoples Democratic Party will withdraw all candidates from the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir elections to support the alliance between the National Conference and Congress if the two parties adopt its “pro-people, pro-J&K” agenda, party president Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday.

The resolution of the Kashmir issue holds more importance for her than assembly seats, Mufti said as she released the party’s manifesto in Srinagar.

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“If the INDIA alliance, including Congress and NC, pledges to resolve the Kashmir issue and accepts the PDP’s core agenda on Kashmir,we are willing to sacrifice all seats and withdraw all candidates from the upcoming elections,” Mufti said.

On Thursday, NC president Farooq Abdullah said that his party has finalised an alliance with the Congress for all 90 assembly seats in Jammu & Kashmir, and added that they were open to also bringing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on board after the elections, indicating the possibility of the three INDIA bloc members coming together in the Union territory’s political landscape.

The announcement came days after the Election Commission announced the schedule of the assembly elections – the first in a decade. The three-phase elections will be held in three phases on September 18 and 25, and October 1. They will be the first assembly polls in the restive region since its special status and statehood were scrapped five years ago, and are likely to be the last step before the Union territory’s statehood is restored.

Terming the NC-Congress alliance as that of “seat sharing”, Mufti said, “We want alliance of agenda and our agenda is resolution of Kashmir problem within ambit of Indian constitution but resolution is very important.”

“For us every election is important whether parliament, assembly or panchayats. Because for us, this is the way to solve the problems of development, employment or resolution,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

But, she said, “Resolution of Kashmir is more important... The dignity of people is much important than three or four assembly seats.”

Although part of the INDIA bloc and the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the NC and the PDP continue to have a tumultuous relationship. The two main parties of the region were unable to reach a seat-sharing pact for the recently held Lok Sabha elections, accusing each other of violating the coalition agreement.

The NC and Congress contested the polls together, with the former winning two of the three seats it contested on and the latter failing to open its account. The PDP was also unable to win a single Lok Sabha seat.

Speaking on Saturday, Mufti made it clear that her party won’t go with it former ally BJP.

“When we forged an alliance with the BJP, they had adopted our agenda. Now they have abolished Article 370, so we can’t forge an alliance with them,” she said.

The PDP emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats in the 2014 polls, and formed an alliance of ideological extremes with the BJP, which has 25 seats. But the coalition collapsed early in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support and Governor’s Rule was imposed in June. The region’s special status was revoked by the BJP-led central government in August 2019.