The Assembly poll announcement by the Election Commission of India (ECI) has brought the National Conference (NC), the Congress and the CPI(M) together, and isolated Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kashmir Valley. This exclusion has led to the PDP actively seeking alliances with the separatists, and the radical Jamaat leaders.
On Tuesday, PDP youth leader Waheed ur Rehman Parra said that if they had known that Jamaat-e-Islamia would participate in electoral process, they would have offered them tickets.
Parra’s statement came hours before the prominent separatist leader Syed Salim Geelani joined the PDP in Srinagar.
Geelani is the second separatist leader who embraced the PDP. Earlier, Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, son of influential Shia cleric and Hurriyat leader Aga Syed Hassan Mosavi, too, had joined the PDP.
A soft corner for separatists
The PDP was founded by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 1999. Since its foundation, the party has been known for its soft separatist stance. The party adopted a semiotic strategy by choosing a green flag, and the pen and inkpot as the election symbol, to appeal to the Jamaat constituency. The symbol was earlier used by the Muslim United Front, an amalgam of various religio-political organisations led by Jamaat.
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There has been a widespread perception that Jamaat cadre voted for the PDP in the 2002 Assembly elections, when it formed the government for the first time in alliance with the Congress, fighting the NC that had dominated the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir over the last several decades. This support was also believed to have been crucial in the 2014 polls.
After taking over as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir for the second time, Sayeed in a press conference thanked Pakistan, militants and the separatists leaders “for allowing to conduct elections” in the region.
However, the PDP lost its Jamaat sympathy after it stitched up an alliance with the BJP after the 2014 polls.
Anger against PDP
In 2016, the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani unleashed bedlam in the Valley. The region was caught in the crosshairs of violent protests. More than 100 people were killed in the streets across the Valley. Political commentators had noted that the killing served as a trigger to unleash the anger bottled up over the past two years against the PDP-BJP government.
After the collapse of the government followed by the abrogation of article 370, the PDP faced an existential crisis, with more than 40 senior party leaders including ministers and legislators deserting it.
Sajad Ahmad Dar, a Valley-based political analyst told businessline that Jamaat and PDP shared the same constituency.
“To save the division of votes, the PDP is making attempts to partner with Hurriyat leaders and separatists,” Ahmad said.