New Delhi: As former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti released her party’s manifesto for the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, she said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will withdraw all its candidates from the election and will support the Congress-National Conference alliance if the two parties adopt “pro-people and pro-J&K agenda”. Mehbooba Mufti’s announcement comes after INDIA bloc members, Congress and National Conference, stitched an alliance for assembly polls.
"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," said Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday, asserting that for her the issue of Kashmir holds more significance than the assembly elections.
"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.
Attacking the Congress-NC alliance, Mehbooba Mufti said that the alliance between the two parties is on the basis of seat-sharing. "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. Mehbooba also ruled out an alliance with the BJP, with which the People's Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier run a coalition government.
NC and Congress finalise pre-poll alliance
National Conference and Congress have sealed an alliance for all 90 assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going for its maiden assembly polls after being reorganised into a Union Territory. The two parties confirmed their alliance after a meeting between the Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah's residence on Thursday.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah on Friday said the seat-sharing arrangement with the two-parties has been finalised for the majority of assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Consensus has been reached to a large extent. I can tell you that we have reached a consensus on the maximum seats out of the 90. On few seats, we are adamant and on some others, the local leaders of the Congress are adamant. There will be meetings today as well and we will try to sort out the rest of the seats so as to announce our candidates," said Omar Abdullah.
Assembly Polls in Jammu and Kashmir
Assembly elections will be held after a decade in Jammu and Kashmir and five years after it was reorganised as a Union Territory. The assembly polls will be conducted in three phases – on September 18, September 25 and October 1. The results of the polls will be announced on October 4, said the Election Commission. In the Union Territory, there are a total of 90 assembly constituencies, of which 74 are General, nine are ST and seven are SC.
This comes after the Supreme Court directed the Centre to conclude the election process by September 30, 2024, in December last year. The last assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 which resulted in a coalition government of PDP and the Bharatiya Janata Party 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.
However, the government could not complete its term and fell in June 2018 after the BJP withdrew support to then-CM Mehbooba Mufti and the erstwhile state was put under governor's rule.