Srinagar: In its first meeting in Jammu division, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Saturday unanimously decided to contest the upcoming District Development Council (DDC) elections unitedly in Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir News Observer (KNO) reported.
Soon after holding the meeting in Jammu, the alliance spokesperson, Sajad Gani Lone, addressed media persons and announced that the leadership has decided to contest the upcoming polls in J&K unitedly.
Lone, who was accompanied by other PAGD leaders, said that all the modalities and new administrative rules will be looked into and the alliance president Dr Farooq Abdullah will declare the names of contestants on his own.
“The PAGD has unanimously decided to fight the DDC elections unitedly. Despite the abruptness of the DDC elections in terms of timing, it is important that this sacred space in democracy is not allowed to be invaded n marauded by divisive forces,” Lone, the spokesperson, tweeted.
Earlier in the day, while the meeting was still going on, J&K Congress announced its decision to contest DDC polls
Addressing a news conference in Jammu, JKPCC chief GA Mir said that after consultation with all of its leaders from different districts, the party has decided to contest the upcoming DDC polls. He said Congress is the oldest party in J&K and it has never stayed away from the democratic process.
“We will not give a free field to BJP in the DDC polls,” he said, adding that the Congress party has some serious concern regarding the conduct of DDC polls in J&K and all these issues were put up before the State Election authorities.
“There are some security concerns also and we have forwarded all our concerns to higher authorities and state election authorities who have assured us that these issues will be looked into,” he said.
“The delimitation of DDC constituencies is uneven and at some places, constituencies are based on one and a half lakh population and at some these are on a few thousand population which shows uneven delimitation,” Mir said, adding that even the reservation criteria followed is not proper.
Mir further said that BJP has followed anti-people policies in Jammu and Kashmir in the past many years which includes downgrading the State & its bifurcation, and people are ready to teach BJP a lesson. KNO
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