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INDIA 2024 India News Politics

PDP names candidates for 3 Valley seats

PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will contest the general elections from Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri constituency….reports Asian Lite News

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday announced candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir.

PDP leader Sartaj Madni announced that Mehbooba Mufti will contest the general elections from Kashmir’s Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

Mufti will be in a political battle from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat against Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Azad will be fighting the Lok Sabha polls for the first time after he lost the 2014 General Elections from Udhampur seat.

Waheed Parra will contest from Srinagar seat while former Rajya Sabha member Mir Fayaz from the Baramulla seat.

Peoples Democractic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday asked that if the Bharatiya Janata Party is saying everything is fine, then why section 144 been imposed in Ladakh.

“Whatever I have been doing on the land of Jammu and Kashmir for the last five years, I have always become the voice of the people here. Our manifesto, our request is to strengthen my voice so that we can raise our issues in Parliament. BJP says everything is fine, if everything is fine then why section 144 has been imposed in Ladakh. Why people of Jammu are upset,” she said.

The National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party are partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance formed to challenge the BJP in the general elections.

The Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territory will be held in the first five phases on April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla).

The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

‘Could not sit silent’

PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday said that her party’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha elections was made inevitable by the statements of National Conference Vice President, Omar Abdullah.

Addressing the media here after the party’s parliamentary board announced her candidature for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, she said: “If the NC wanted to fight all the 3 seats in the Valley, we would not have opposed that decision. What hurt our workers was that when NC Vice President, Omar Abdullah went public to announce his party’s decision to fight all 3 Valley Lok Sabha seats, they did not even bother to inform us.”

“Instead of that, Omar Sahib said that the PDP is a spent force. He even said his party would watch our conduct before deciding on any future electoral alignment with us. Is this the language you use against a party that has been your partner in the PAGD? We never use such language against Omar Sahib,” she added.

She will face Mian Altaf Ahmad of the NC and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) in the constituency.

Mehbooba Mufti said that for her, standing in the elections is not an attractive proposition, but the way her workers have been hurt, she had no other option.

She alleged that her senior party leaders had been taken away one by one and all that she was left with were the poor ground-level workers who were the main strength of her party.

“How could I take insult to them lying down and doing nothing?” she asked.

Mehbooba Mufti added that an election is a battle of ideas and she had nothing personal against those fighting elections against her party candidates.

She said that her PDP has decided to support the Congress in the Jammu division because of, what she termed, the “extremely tough times the nation is facing this time”.

The PDP also nominated its youth leader, Waheed Para, from the Srinagar seat and former Rajya Sabha member, Fayaz Mir, for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP has not yet announced its candidates for any of the 3 Lok Sabha seats in the Valley.

PoJK refugees urge political parties to clear stand on their demands

SOS International, an organization for Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) Displaced Persons, on Sunday, asked the political parties and candidates contesting from the newly carved Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary seat in Jammu and Kashmir to clear their stand on nine major demands of refugees.

PoJK displaced persons have demanded the implementation of the PoJK Refugees package; reservation of eight seats in the J&K Assembly for the displaced people; providing equal facilities to all the refugees displaced from PoJK on the lines of the displaced people of Kashmir Valley; and inclusion of 5,300 PoJK displaced families settled outside the J&K within the ambit of the Refugees package, SOS International said in a statement.

Their demands also include granting Scheduled Tribe status to the entire PoJK refugee community belonging to Pahari clan, tribe and ethnicity; allowing PoJK displaced people to visit their religious places located in PoJK; to get back the cash deposited by PoJK refugees in Jammu and Kashmir Bank Mirpur before displacement; formation of Mirpur, Muzaffarabad, Poonch and Gilgit scouts to guard the Line of Control to prevent infiltration; and restoration of land rights under sections 578 and 254C.

Addressing a gathering of PoJK displaced persons in Rajouri, SOS International Chairman Rajiv Chuni said it is high time for all political parties and candidates to publicly announce their full support to all major demands of refugees if they are serious about getting nearly 1.5 lakh votes of PoJK displaced persons in Rajouri and Poonch districts, the statement added.

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India News PAKISTAN Politics

PDP Entry Shifts Focus to BJP’s Anantnag-Rajouri Pick

Anantnag-Rajouri constituency is the only Lok Sabha constituency in J&K that is spread on both the Jammu division and the Valley…reports Asian Lite News

After former J&K Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti announced to field the candidates for the the Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley, the most interesting contest is going to be in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

With 18,30,294 voters including 93,0379 male, 89,9888 female and 27 third gender, the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency is the only Lok Sabha constituency in J&K that is spread on both the Jammu division and the Valley.

The Election Commission (EC) is setting up 2,338 polling stations, 225 in urban areas and 2,113 in rural areas for the voters of this constituency.

Rajouri and Poonch districts in Jammu division, and Anantnag and Kulgam districts in the Valley, are the voting segments of the constituency.

The voters including the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims of the Valley, the Gujjar/Bakarwal Muslims of Poonch and Rajouri in addition to large numbers of the Pahari community and Hindus in the latter two districts.

Diverse topography, different vocations and priorities make the voters of this constituency as diverse as their likely voting preferences.

The constituency is presently represented by Justice (Retired) Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference (NC).

After the districts of Rajouri and Poonch were made voting segments of this constituency during the fresh delimitation of constituencies, the NC has decided not to field its sitting candidate.

Instead, the senior Gujjar/Bakarwal religious and political leader, Mian Altaf Ahmad has been nominated by the NC as its candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.

Given his stature and respect among the Gujjar/Bakarwal community, Mian’s choice as the NC candidate was a foregone conclusion.

Yet, the decision of Mehbooba Mufti to field a PDP candidate in this constituency has added a twist to the tail for the NC.

PDP insiders say that Mufti will fight the Lok Sabha elections herself from this constituency.

She belongs to Bijbehara town of Anantnag district which is her ancestral home.

Her late father and former Chief Minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed belonged to Bijbehara. Anantnag district in particular and other south Kashmir districts in general have been seen as traditional strongholds of the PDP.

This is true, despite Mufti’s defeat at the hands of the NC candidate in the 2019 general elections.

Former senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who formed his own political party, the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), is also fighting elections from this constituency.

A natural outcome of Mehbooba Mufti’s decision to join the electoral battle in this constituency is the PDP’s direct confrontation with the NC.

Azad is not a political force to reckon with in this constituency and yet as a former senior Congress leader, he is likely to get a fairly good number of votes.

Without hazarding a guess on winners and losers, the fact remains that the NC, PDP and the DPAP will cut into each other’s vote bank.

After the abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of J&K into a union territory, it is naive to talk of unflinching voter support to any of these three political parties in the constituency.

Voters have different considerations and priorities, with peace, development, education, healthcare and employment being the real voter priorities now.

The BJP is yet to announce its candidate for this constituency. There is little doubt that the BJP has a large number of Pahari community support in Poonch and Rajouri, especially after the grant of ST status to this community.

BJP has made inroads in many parts of Anantnag and Kulgam districts, but its major chunk of votes is likely to come from across the Pir Panjal mountain range in Poonch and Rajouri districts.

The key to BJP giving its rivals a tough time and formidable challenge lies in the party’s choice of candidate for the constituency.

There are reports that the party is seriously considering the name of a serving IAS officer belonging to the Poonch district. The other name doing the rounds as the BJP candidate is the party’s J&K unit president, Ravinder Raina.

It is generally believed that if the BJP chooses an ST candidate for the constituency, the party will give its rivals a run for their life.

The constituency goes to vote on May 7 and all contesting parties are preparing to give their best shot to the elections in this constituency because the winner would have proved public support in both the divisions of the UT.

Omar: NC, Cong will fight LS polls jointly

Former J&K Chief Minister and Vice President of National Conference (NC) Omar Abdullah said on Thursday that NC and Congress will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections jointly.

A day after Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) announced its decision to field candidates for all 3 Lok Sabha seats in the Valley, Omar Abdullah told reporters that his party and the Congress will fight the Lok Sabha elections jointly.

He said that the NC President Farooq Abdullah is campaigning for the Congress candidates in the Jammu division and that the Congress has assured support to the NC in the Valley.

He said that the picture would be clear in a few days since Congress is likely to come up with an announcement in this regard.

Meanwhile, Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party headed by Syed Altaf Bukhari on Thursday announced its candidates for 2 Lok Sabha seats in the Valley.

A spokesman of the Apni Party said that Mohammad Ashraf Mir will fight Lok Sabha elections for the party from the Srinagar constituency while Zafar Iqbal Manhas will be the party candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency.

The party has not announced any candidate for the north Kashmir Baramulla constituency.

With the Apni Party announcing candidates for Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri constituencies, the Lok Sabha election battle in these constituencies has become interesting.

NC has fielded senior Gujjar/Bakarwal leader Mian Altaf Ahmad for the Anantnag seat while Omar Abdullah is likely to fight from the Srinagar constituency.

Mehbooba Mufti, former Chief Minister and President of PDP is also likely to stand for the Anantnag-Rajouri seat.

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India News Politics

NC, PDP to contest J&K Assembly polls jointly

His reference was to the Peoples Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Gani Lone who had initially joined the PAGD, but later left the grouping…reports Asian Lite News

Jammu and Kashmir’s National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday announced that they will contest the next Assembly elections in the UT jointly.

Addressing media here, NC President and the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) Chairman, Dr. Farooq Abdullah said: “We will contest the elections together. There is a political party that said that they have left the alliance.

“The truth is that they were never part of the alliance. They had come to break us from within.”

His reference was to the Peoples Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Gani Lone who had initially joined the PAGD, but later left the grouping.

PDP President Mehbooba Mufti, who addressed reporters separately, said: “We intend to contest the elections together as it is the will of the people that we should strive together for the restoration of our lost dignity.”

Responding to a question, Abdullah said elections can be held whenever the government wants.

About the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, he said Kashmiris have over the years ensured that the Yatra is held peacefully and smoothly.

Asked about the government’s decision to have the national flag hoisted on every home under the ‘Har Ghar Pe Tiranga’ programme, Abdullah said: “The government can hoist the flag on every house, but it would be great if the people fly the national flag on their own.”

The PAGD was formed in the aftermath of abrogation of Article 370 and downgrading of the state to a Union Territory in August 2019.

The alliance comprises of 5 parties – the NC, the PDP, the Awami National Conference, the CPI-M and the J&K Peoples Movement – and seeks restoration of Article 370 and statehood to J&K.

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