The People’s Democratic Party has decided to contest all the three Lok Sabha seats on its own in Kashmir, party president Mehbooba Mufti has said, dealing a blow to the INDIA bloc.
Addressing a news conference in Srinagar on Wednesday, Mufti said the list of candidates will be released soon.
She also blamed National Conference leader and former chief minister Omar Abdullah for not considering her party in the seat-sharing process even though it was “a necessity to contest polls collectively due to the scenario that developed after August 5, 2019,” (when Article 370 was abolished)."
There were no options before her as “no one was permitted so speak,” she added.
Insisting that the situation would have been different had Omar Abdullah consulted PDP before taking a decision on the seats, Mufti said her party would have definitely considered the situation in the greater interest of Kashmir.
She also said that her party’s workers were extremely demoralised by Omar Abdullah's statements that the PDP did not “exist and was nowhere.”
That hurt, she added. The BJP “broke my party completely, but Omar’s statement has left my workers disappointed. PDP has been in power twice in recent years, yet Omar Abdullah continues to claim that the party does not exist," she added.
Her party workers, Mufti said, “tell me we should also pitch our candidates.”
There was no room for PDP, even “though we expected NC to rise beyond party allegiance this time, but they proved us wrong,” she added.
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