Haroon Nabi
The exodus of senior politicians from People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and joining People’s Conference (PC) and other parties is nowhere surprising, it’s universal that pupils run to their master/parents finally.
The formation of PDP was a unique experiment – an experiment which saw the invisible hand of Delhi helping the Mufti’s collect strong winnable individuals and putting them under one roof.
The party borrowed its cadre from the Jamaat in South Kashmir and attracted strong winnable individuals from the north and central Kashmir.
When the PDP was formed, it took leaders from all parties across the political spectrum – congress, national conference and Peoples Conference. Almost all leaders who joined PDP from North came from the People’s Conference for electoral gains as PC back then was boycotting elections.
As per a senior political analyst, power politics was the glue which held this party of divergent individuals and viewpoints together. As soon as the party lost power, these individuals found nothing in common between their interests and the interests of the party. It was an experiment by Delhi to create a buffer between mainstream and separatism. That necessity no longer exists for Delhi hence the party has lost its Raison d’être. It was an experiment which has lost its relevance and outlived its utility.
PDP has had two terms in governance but a constant in both their stints was the infighting among the party. It is an open secret how every leader from the PDP aspires to be the CM in the PDP-BJP govt.
The prime example is of Altaf Bukhari who later broke away and formed his own Apni party. The first jolt to this party of individuals was given by the Apni Party when many prominent PDP leaders decided to leave the party and join the Apni Party. Some members also later joined the National conference. And now the trend is shifting to North of Kashmir where senior political leaders are putting all their bets on the People’s Conference.
It is pertinent to mention that political stalwarts like Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Abdul Haq Khan, Raja Manzoor, Nizamuddin Bhat and others originally belonged to the Peoples Conference. With the PDP at its weakest as was evident in the Parliament elections in 2019 and recently held DDC elections, all these leaders are looking towards the ‘PC’ for their political survival.
There’s only a party’s mandate that hooks the common man, and the question remains what if PC’s don’t hook them up. As is evident from Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party winning only 12 out of 170 seats on which it contested District Development Council polls.
Another political analyst said, “PDP leaders from North and Central Kashmir will find it hard to regain their foothold in their constituencies especially when the party is weakening not just in Central and North Kashmir but also in South Kashmir. This is WA forcing the winnable candidates to rethink their political alignment. A lot of leaders in the north believe that Peoples Conference is a natural choice because they have been associated with the party at some time. Likewise, leaders from other regions will also join parties from where they think they have the highest chance of winning. There is nothing new to these events.
It’s not summing up the party, but do common people who make these leaders really advocate their decision of switching parties, this only time will tell.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
