Terming expulsion of Altaf Bukhari as PDP’s internal matter, J&K Pradesh Congress Committee Sunday said it will start election campaign in Kashmir from February.
Senior vice-president JKPCC, G N Monga said the party has decided to start campaign for the upcoming parliamentary and assembly elections “on large scale” from February in Kashmir valley.
He said the party would have started the election related activities had it not been the bad weather.
The senior Congress leader said the party functionaries in Kashmir “are active and are in contact with people on the ground. But from February we will hold conventions and rallies in every nook and corner of Valley to garner the support.”
He said the party was hopeful that this time it will “gain more” in the Valley.
The JKPCC vice president said that senior party leaders and cadre are now-a-days busy in consolidating in Jammu region. “The exercise in Jammu is about to complete and we have got satisfactory response from the people,” he said adding that in the coming parliamentary and the assembly elections, the Congress “will take lead in Jammu as well as in Kashmir.”
He said the results of the local bodies and Panchayat have given edge to the Congress.
“The people rejected the BJP-RSS combine as was evident by the poll outcome,” he said.
“The BJP was aiming to grab power in the Valley through Urban Local Body (ULB) elections, but the people have defeated its designs.”
The senior Congress leader said they will go to the people with concrete agenda.
In the local body elections in the Valley the Congress won 79 wards. In Leh it swept the polls winning all the 13 seats. In Kargil, the party got 6 and Independents won 7 wards.
Monga said that expulsion of former finance minister Altaf Bukhari from the PDP was its (PDP’s) internal matter. “But it seems something is wrong in the PDP as many left and some were expelled,” he said adding that they are watching the developments closely.