People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday invited the National Conference and Congress, which formed an alliance to fight the upcoming Assembly polls, to contest on all 90 seats of the Union Territory if they follow her party's agenda.
Releasing the PDP manifesto at a press conference in Srinagar, Mufti said the alliance between NC and Congress happened on the basis of seat-sharing and not based on any agenda. She added her party won't join any alliance if there were only talks on seat-sharing.
"Alliance and seat sharing are faraway things. If the National Conference and Congress are ready to adopt our agenda, we will say they should contest on all seats. We will follow them because, for me, solving the problem of Kashmir is more important than anything else... When we allied earlier also, we had an agenda, when we allied with the BJP, we had an agenda which they agreed to," she said.
"But the alliance between the NC and Congress is not happening on the agenda. It is happening on seat sharing. We will not do any alliance in which there is only talk of seat sharing. The alliance should be on the agenda and our agenda is to solve the problem of Jammu and Kashmir," she added.
She said her party wanted the opening of the route to the Hindu pilgrimage site Sharada Peeth in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), and called for dialogue with Pakistan for the restoration of cross-LoC trade, which has been suspended by India since 2019 after Pakistan downgraded its trade ties following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
In the last Assembly polls held in 2014, the BJP and PDP formed a coalition government, with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister. After Sayeed's death in January 2016, Mehbooba Mufti succeeded her father following a brief period of Governor’s Rule.
In June 2018, the BJP walked out of the PDP-led coalition government, leading to the dissolution of the Assembly by then-Governor Satya Pal Malik in November of that year. Since then, Jammu and Kashmir has not had an Assembly.
In the press conference, Mufti said her PDP, if voted to power in the Assembly polls, would give free 200 units of electricity and implement the old pension scheme.
She also promised that her party would ensure free electricity to temples, mosques and gurdwaras. She said her party would increase the honorarium of contractual teachers.
She stated that free legal would be provided for those people who are behind bars.
ABOUT THREE-PHASED J&K ASSEMBLY POLLS
Elections in 90 Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three phases on September 18, September 25 and October 1. Results are expected to be declared on October 4.
This will be the first Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir since the erstwhile state was stripped of Article 370 that granted special status and bifurcated into two Union Territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh in 2019.
Since 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been governed as a Union Territory, with key powers resting with the Lieutenant Governor, currently Manoj Kumar Sinha.
