Jammu & Kashmir: 3 More PDP Leaders Quit Party, Say ' It Is Acting As The B-Team Of NC'

The leaders including Daman Bhasin, Fallail Singh, and Pritam Kotwal tendered their resignation to the party leader.

Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and President of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti interacts with senior party leaders, at her residence in Srinagar, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. Union Territory administration revoked the Public Safety Act charges against Mufti, more than a year after she was detained following the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state. (PTI Photo)

J&K: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, suffered another hit, within a month after another three leaders citing that the party has become ‘second fiddle’ resigned from the party. The leaders including Daman Bhasin, Fallail Singh, and Pritam Kotwal tendered their resignation to the party leader. “Putting our political career at the stake, we joined PDP from the very first day of its formation with an aim to provide a secular alternative to corrupt and dynast NC as late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had the vision to frustrate evil designs of communal and parochial elements but the party leadership has, unfortunately, abandoned Mufti Sahib agenda to become B team of NC,” they said in a letter. “Apart from becoming the B team of NC, the party leadership has recently given some highly provocative and controversial statements against the basic principles of the founder of the party. Keeping in view the prevailing situation, being disciples of late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, it is difficult for us to work in the party which has become second fiddle to the NC. We are forced to make this difficult decision with a heavy heart to leave the party which we were formed as disciples of late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,” they added. This comes after, TS Bajwa, Ved Mahajan, and Hussain A Waffa earlier in October, resigned from the party stating they were, “feeling quite uncomfortable over some of her actions and undesirable utterances, especially which hurt patriotic sentiments” referring to party chief Mehbooba Mufti.  “Instead of overcoming the challenges from within and outside by a process of broader consultations and trust, some elements within the party pulling the party and leadership in a particular direction, thus deviating from the basic principles, agenda, and philosophy, making it difficult to face the saner voices in the society,” they said. The resignation of Bajwa, Mahajan, and Waffa was a result of the party chief statement in which she said that no member of the PDP will raise the tricolor, until and unless they were allowed to raise the erstwhile flag of Jammu and Kashmir, which was the constitutional right of the state until the article 370 was abrogated. Another reason which led to the resignation of the leaders was the seat-sharing plan of the party in the newly formed Gupkar Alliance, a group of seven political parties in the state to fight the District Development Council (DDC) elections. In the alliance National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah has been chosen as its chairperson and Mufti his deputy.