SRINAGAR: J&K Peoples Conference Chairman Sajad Gani Lone on Monday convened a meeting of the senior leadership and newly elected DDC members of the party for the first time after the recently concluded DDC elections. He congratulated the elected members and stressed upon them the need to uphold the mandate of the people.
The Peoples Conference
Asserting that this step marks a new chapter in grassroots democracy, Sajad said the newly elected DDC members should be aware of the expectations of the people.
“People have been away from political governance for more than two years. The DDC members are the first democratically elected and politically empowered representative of the people and they should go back to people with promises of deliverance. I expect them to deliver for the people of J&K in a fair, transparent and effective manner,” he added.
Yawar Hussain
explains the spectacle in wake of historic realties
A cartoon by Kashmir’s legendary cartoonist BAB saying the PADG would fight for 370, then will fight elections and will eventually fight within.
With Kashmir’s traditional rivals in politics joining hands post 5/8 to form Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the fault lines separating their turfs refuse to dissipate despite the leadership bonhomie. Throughout the post-partition history, the rivals have fed their followers with so much hate against each other that now political identities at ground zero defy the leadership.
There is a groundswell of support in PAGD’s favour but it is so wavering in certain areas that it can upset the calculations of top Kashmir parties. PAGD leaders admit they had not envisioned it. There are rebellions within the parties. At countless places, a PAGD candidate is in the contest against proxy candidates of the PAGD constituents.