UNENDING FAULT LINES

The desperation to retain the turf created a situation that PAGD candidates at various places are contesting against the parties that make the alliance. It is obvious that the Kashmir leaderships’ handshake has not been accepted on the ground. Yawar Hussain explains the spectacle in wake of historic realties

- Yawar Hussain

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.

CLUELESS PAGD

In Budgam, the PAGD failed to knit an alliance with all its constituents and eventually, the parties decided to fight each other. In the first three nomination lists, PAGD announced candidatures for the district but the PDP local leader Nazir Ahmad Khan chose to contest himself against the official PAGD candidate from Beerwah. He even nominated his candidates from every segment in Beerwah.

PDP General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, who also represents his party in the alliance, publicly accused the NC of fielding proxies and allotting just one seat from Budgam to the PDP.

Later, he told Kashmir Life that there is a “friendly contest” on all seats in Budgam. His son, Gowhar Lone is fighting against NC leader Abdul Rahim Rather’s candidate from the Surasyar DDC segment. The story is similar elsewhere.