Azad asks party workers to gear up for upcoming elections in J&K

Jammu, Feb 28 (PTI) Democratic Progressive Azad Party chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday asked his party workers to gear up for the upcoming elections and reach out to the people to ensure victory for the party.

“Jammu and Kashmir is going to witness four elections Parliament, assembly, urban local bodies and panchayats within next six months. We have to intensify our efforts and stand united to ensure victory of the party candidates,” Azad said while addressing a workers convention in the Doda district.

The former chief minister said Jammu and Kashmir is run by bureaucracy instead of a democratically elected government.
“A bureaucrat can run an office efficiently but not take the position of a Member of Legislative Assembly. The last assembly elections happened in 2014 and the PDP-BJP rule only witnessed bickering till the fall of the government in 2018. This is probably for the first time that people of any region were denied assembly elections post independence in the country,” Azad said.

The DPAP leader alleged that the people are suffering immensely due to non-resolution of their problems which have gone up over the last five years in the absence of the assembly.
He also took a dig at the National Conference (NC) and the PDP and said those who are dubbing DPAP as the “B-team” of BJP are in fact the “A-teams” of the ruling party.
“Who was the minister in the A B Vajpayee-led central government?” he said referring to NC vice president Omar Abdullah.

Similarly, PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti became the chief minister with the support of the BJP, he said, asking the people to remain cautious and vote intelligently to choose their representatives in the upcoming polls.

Azad, who ended over four-decade-long association with the Congress to form the DPAP in September 2022, said he left national politics to serve the people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Jammu and Kashmir is my soul and Chenab valley my heart I have come to serve the people and need your support so that we will give a pro-people government which will benefit all sections of the society without any discrimination. We will do justice with all,” he said.