Kashmir: NC senior leader joins PDP

People’s Democratic Party (PDP) gets boost when Mohd Ashraf Ganie s/o Former minister and NC senior leader Mohd Akbar Ganie from Sadiwara village in Dooru area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district on Monday (May 06)  joined the party along with hundreds of political workers in presence of PDP President and former Chief minister Ms Mehbooba Mufti.

The Baramulla parliamentary seat LoK Sabha elections is scheduled on May 20 while the Anantnag-Rajouri LoK Sabha seat elections have been scheduled on May 25.

he Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a state political party in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The PDP was headed and founded by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. His daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, succeeded him as party leader and as Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir following his death in January 2016. The party is a member of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration electoral alliance. The party is also a member of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance since its founding on 18 June 2023.

History

The PDP was founded in 1999 by the former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. It captured power in Jammu and Kashmir in October 2002 Assembly elections. In 2004, it had one member each in the Lok Sabha and in the Rajya Sabha. It was a member of the ruling United Progressive Alliance until the 2009 general election.

Sayeed headed the PDP-Indian National Congress Coalition Government between October 2002 and November 2005, and he was the party’s Patron until his death on 7 January 2016. The PDP is now headed by Mehbooba Mufti, Sayeed’s daughter.

The PDP operates on the ideology of self-rule, as distinctly different from the issues of autonomy. It believes that self-rule as a political philosophy, as opposed to autonomy, ensures the empowerment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, while further engaging in debates over new political territoriality of Jammu and Kashmir.

In the 2014 general election, three of its members were elected to the Lok Sabha. Its strength in the Legislative Assembly is 28 and in the Rajya Sabha is two. The party ran a Coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir with the Bharatiya Janata Party until the BJP abandoned the coalition on June 19, 2018, due to concerns about terrorism and radicalization in Kashmir.

Also Read: Army releases sketches of terrorists, announces reward for info