Why PDP is on shaky ground in Kashmir a decade after it rose to power
Several leaders have quit, its support base has eroded and there are new challengers to its mantle of ‘soft separatism’, said observers.
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Fifteen years ago, Raja Waheed joined the Peoples Democratic Party. He worked his way up to the position of vice-president of the party’s unit in Shopian district and in 2020 won the elections to the district development council.
When the date of the Assembly elections to Jammu and Kashmir was announced – the first polls after it was downsized from a state to a Union territory five years ago – the 48-year-old was certain of getting a ticket from the Shopian assembly segment in South Kashmir.
He was in for a shock.
“The party chose a candidate who joined the party in 2021.” He quit. “It’s against my self-respect to be a part of the PDP anymore.”
Waheed is not alone. At least nine prominent leaders, including a former Member of Legislative Assembly, have left the party since the elections to the Union territory were announced – seven in its bastion of South Kashmir.
While a certain degree of churn is inevitable ahead of an election, conversations with leaders and insiders of the party suggest that the Peoples Democratic Party is staring at a crisis.
The party, which formed the last elected government in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in 2014, has already been enfeebled over the last...
