By IANS,
Jammu : Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, patron of the main opposition PDP, Sunday dispelled the impression that his party was Kashmir-centric and declared that it was as much as the party of Jammu region as that of the Valley.
“We want to be as much alternative political party in Jammu region as we are in the Kashmir Valley”, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader told a public meeting at Hiranagar, 65-km south-west of Jammu. He said that the PDP believed in the progress of all the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
“Our agenda is not confined to the Valley alone”, he said. It was his political way of saying things that the party has extended its reach to Jammu region and it was much a voice of the people of Kashmir as that of Jammu.
Jammu had been voting for Congress, BJP and National Conference in the past elections. It was only in the 2008 Assembly polls that that PDP could win two of the region’s 37 seats.
The Mufti also dispelled the impression that his party’s manifesto of “self-rule” was seeking a solution outside of the Indian constitution. “It is possible within the parameters of the Indian constitution,” he said.
The PDP had brought out self-rule document as an alternative to the greater autonomy demand of the National Conference. The NC used to claim that its autonomy document is seeking the restoration of Article 370 in its original form, when the state had control over all subjects barring external affairs, communications and defence.
Self-rule, however, had pleaded for empowerment of the regions across the territory of Jammu and Kashmir – including the parts of the state, currently under Pakistan’s control.