Seat Sharing Strife: PDP, NC Discord Deepens; Mehbooba Mufti Tipped for South Kashmir
The divide between the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be widening today, as PDP leader Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra criticised the NC leadership for what he described as an attitude of arrogance regarding seat sharing and the PDP.
He alleged that the NC’s present three MPs had miserably failed to raise their voice in favour of the people after abrogation of the Article 370. He further said Mehbooba Mufti’s voice would represent Kashmiris better in the parliament. He said, “So, the PDP has declared that it is going to contest against the NC if it fields a candidate from the South Kashmir constituency Rajouri and Anantnag and that candidate will be Mehbooba Mufti.”
“During elections for the district development councils or for other issues, the alliance (the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration) worked well. If they (Omar or Dr Farooq Abdullah) had asked Mehbooba Mufti to give all three seats to them, we would have readily complied. However, their dismissal of the PDP’s very existence saying that the party doesn’t exist, they don’t have vote, is arrogant,” Parra said.
“They claim that the NC is superior and that the PDP has no relevance. However, I believe that the people of Jammu and Kashmir are closely monitoring every statement, and they will respond accordingly,” Parra said.
He said in 2002, the NC held the notion that Kashmiris had no choice, but to support them, and they still maintain the same assumption today. “They don’t see it as their duty to encourage people to vote. They believe that they are doing a favour to the people by seeking their votes. They think people have no alternatives,” Parra said.
While describing the NC’s language against the PDP as arrogant and prideful, Parra said people would respond to it.
“We had reasons to fight unitedly. We thought we should unite. We believed we should walk together,” he said. Parra said the NC repeatedly claims that they had three seats, but what had they done since the abrogation of Article 370. “They didn’t address issues. They didn’t talk about arrests of the people and even remained silent when the land of Kashmiris was being usurped,” he said.
He said there was no better voice than Mehbooba Mufti to be sent to parliament to represent Kashmiris. “They (NC) wanted a narrative where the people should fight against each other. They want to shift the goalpost so that instead of making it a fight against the BJP, the narrative should be the NC versus PDP, and they have succeeded in it.”
He said all along the PDP had been talking about Kashmiris and after abrogation of Article 370 it had been vociferous on issues. “That is why it was split by the Centre. They didn’t break the NC. They didn’t break the Congress. They only broke the PDP,” Parra said.
