START OF POLITICAL BUSTLE
Albeit after the launch of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), an amalgam of a few political parties seeking restoration of Article 370 and statehood for J&K, former chief minister of erstwhile J&K State and national Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah had hinted that the Alliance can go for the polls jointly but at that time the statement was premature and not taken as seriously in the political circles. With delimitation exercise’s successful culmination and assertions made by the important constituents in the government for an early Assembly election, Dr Farooq Abdullah reiterating that the PAGD will go for aforesaid poll jointly means a lot in the political arena of J&K especially when NC and PDP are on same side because both these parties have strong base especially in Kashmir. The party in power in the centre viz BJP will have to change its strategy in J&K to get the numbers to form the government on its own if the PAGD constituents which are five in numbers, will stick to the aforesaid decision announced by PAGD Chairman Dr Farooq Abdullah. The NC President has said on Monday that PAGD will jointly contest the Assembly elections. Dr Farooq Abdullah has also expressed resentment over the delay in Assembly elections as he said that if New Delhi could hold elections soon after the 2014 floods in J&K, why couldn’t they hold it now? Although no one in the centre has refused to hold elections in J&K but the restlessness of NC Patron is obvious because his assertion is testimony to the fact that still five constituents of PAGD are together and any inordinate delay in Assembly poll can change the situation because there are no permanent foes or friends in politics. It is pertinent to mention that last week, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had invited heads of all the mainstream political parties and this meeting was significant because the same was the maiden one in Raj Bhavan after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019. Surely the poll bustle has started in the UT of J&K and the coming days will be full of exciting changes in the political circles and stances, which is the part and parcel of a vibrant democracy.