By IANS,
Jammu : The main political opposition in Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party Sunday broke its silence, three days after results of elections to the four seats of the Legislative Council from the Panchayat quota were declared, saying that the results proved that the PDP is a “historic necessity”.
The four seats, to which elections were held Dec 3 after over 30 years, were won by the ruling coalition of the National Conference and the Congress.
PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed said the state was poised for a genuine democratic contest for the first time in its history, and people would have to make clear choices based on performance.
Addressing an impressive rally in Bari Brahmana near here in Vijaypur assembly segment, Mufti said the emergence of the PDP as a credible regional force had ended monopolistic politics and introduced a much needed corrective to the democratic system of Jammu and Kashmir.
Mufti said the party’s expansion into all regions of the state was a historic necessity. Apart from providing an alternative for governance, it could fill a major gap in state polity by connecting regions and communities across the state on a single political platform, he said.
“Till now, unfortunately, no party has been able to inspire confidence among all the stakeholders of our diverse state with everybody aiming solely for power and generally creating fissures in society for vote banks. I am making a sincere effort to fill this void by connecting people and seek your cooperation in bringing them on one platform to fight for our democratic rights,” Mufti told his audience.
Mufti said: “Democracy in the state had suffered in the past for a variety of reasons, but one major deficiency was the absence of a credible alternative to the National Conference in Kashmir and the generally adversarial national parties in most parts of Jammu.”