PAGD And DDC Elections

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PAGD

It seems the consensus is being built among the mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir which recently formed the People’s Alliance Gupkar Declaration or PAGD.

On Sunday, the PAGD decided to fight the elections of DDC united and significantly announced from Jammu in a press conference.

The announcement was made after Congress party decided to field its candidates in the DDC elections and UT government on Friday issued the date sheet for the elections.

While the elections for the third tier of Panchayat Raj in Jammu and Kashmir will be first time in last four decades, the BJP may also try to seek the credit for holding the process.

But what would more be seen as a PAGD contesting the elections together with NC patron Dr Farooq Abdullah its chairman. From the PAGD point of view, this seems a good beginning for PAGD and shows consensus is being built among all the political parties against BJP.

All the mainstream parties in Jammu Kashmir see BJP’s presence as a major threat to their survival. PDP is even being accused on same grounds for forging its alliance in 2016 with the ideologically driven national political party and put the future of many political dispensations in jeopardy.

Today, they have all forged an alliance to stop the march of BJP which is expanding its reach in every nook and cranny of UT.

The boycott in the urban local body elections in fact offered a breathing space for the BJP and had large number of counselors elected in municipal elections besides the Panchs and Sarpanchs across the UT.

The local political parties including PDP, NC, PC do not want to repeat their mistakes and allow BJP to secure significant DDC seats in this upcoming process.

Today’s decision may help them in a long way to retain their ground. They must have also to understand that they can only fight while staying politically relevant.

Boycotting elections can only squeeze their space and in long run may not be a good sign. PAGD wisely choose the bastion of BJP in Jammu where it in previous Assembly elections secured the highest number of 25 seats.

In Jammu, the BJP had also played a war of perception against these local mainstream parties and shrunk their space to Kashmir region only.

These political parties must take it as an opportunity to fight the elections positively alongside keep demanding what they have been. That is how democracies survive and thrive.

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