Congress on Friday said that the outcome of District Development Council polls will be a hard reply to Delhi’s “unilateral” decisions taken on 5 August last year.
Talking to the Greater Kashmir, the party’s J&K president GA Mir said its purpose of joining Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) for DDC polls will be reflected once the result is announced.
“Our ground alliance will show our purpose behind this. Whatever decisions have been taken post August last year, they are all unilateral, taken by Delhi. This election will give a befitting reply to all those decisions,” said Mir.
He said his party is doing “networking” for DDC polls in such a way that secular votes will not be separated.
“We are into such networking with all parties for DDC elections, with parties with which we have joined our hands and done seat sharing,” he said.
He added the party’s “networking “is not limited to PAGD, but also with other secular parties.
‘Democratic way chosen by PAGD made us to be part of it’
Congress said People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration’s (PAGD) decision to contest District Development Council elections made the party to be part of it, since the amalgam had chosen a democratic way in politics.
Though the party is among the signatories to PAGD’s declaration—in which various political parties have vouched to strive for J&K’s pre-5 August 2019 status, however it had not been attending the meetings of the alliance. However, following the announcement of DDC elections, the party’s leaders including Taj Mohiuddin and Bashir Ahmad Magrey earlier, and in a latest the former along with the party’s J&K vice president Ghulam Nabi Monga attended PAGD meeting at Mehbooba Mufti’s residence today, followed by another meeting at National Conference’s Nawa-i-Subah headquarters.
“This time it is purely for DDC polls. On one side we have got PAGD and on the other there is Congress. It was after Farooq sahib’s announcement, we started participating in the meetings of PAGD. Until then Congress had not participated in any meeting of PAGD, whatever may have been the reasons,” said Mir.
He added: “But after the announcement was made by PAGD, and they took a democratic way in politics, so Congress also participated in it. As on today we are part of that democratic process, particularly for DDC elections. Other things we will discuss later”.
Meanwhile, Congress called a meeting of its district presidents and its leaders at its headquarters to discuss the strategy in the elections.