People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), also called the Gupkar Alliance, the seven-party coalition led by former Union Minister and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has made huge gains in the first-ever polls to the Jammu and Kashmir District Development Council held across 20 districts the erstwhile state by emerging victorious in 13 districts.
Interestingly, the BJP has emerged as the single largest party with 74 seats and winning six districts in Jammu while Congress has won only 26 seats.
The Gupkar Alliance was formed after the abrogation of Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and other leaders of the valley were detained in August last year to prevent protests. The NC leaders Farooq and Omar Abdullah were released in March while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was released in October after over a year of being detained.
Voting was held for a total of 280 seats, with 14 seats in the 20 districts of the Union Territory. In the DDC elections, ballot papers were used instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).
The DDC elections were held in eight phases starting from November 28 and concluding on December 19 while the counting was held on December 22.
The decision to fight the DDC election was taken by the Gupkar Alliance and it announced that it would be fielding joint candidates and issued the list of its ‘unanimous’ candidates for the first five phases.
The Gupkar Alliance had alleged that their candidates had been kept in security enclosures and were not allowed to campaign for security reasons.
The BJP, on the other hand, flew central leaders to campaign for the J&K elections.