Ghulam Nabi Azad and Altaf Bukhari’s parties failed to leave their mark in the first big test as their Lok Sabha election candidates forfeited their deposits
Two political parties that came into being after the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu Kashmir, one led by former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and another by former minister Altaf Bukhari, failed to leave their mark in the first big test as their Lok Sabha election candidates forfeited their deposits.
Apni Party was contesting polls from two seats in Kashmir, Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri, and the party was confident of winning at least one of the two. The party was supported by Sajjad Lone’s People Conference in the Baramulla seat.
Comprising former ministers and legislators mostly from the Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party, the Apni Party was formed by Bukhari soon after abrogation of Article 370 and the leaders were first to open channels of communication with New Delhi and held meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah in 2020.
In Srinagar, Apni Party candidate Ashraf Mir, a former minister in the PDP government, managed to secure 65,953 for only a 9.6% vote share. Anantnag-Rajouri candidate Zaffar Iqbal Manhas bagged 14,2195 for a 13.86% vote share.
“We had expected better results, but in our first big elections, we got more than two lakh votes. In the assembly polls, our party will surprise everybody,” a senior Apni Party leader said.
“These results have shown us that both these new parties are far behind from other mainstream parties like NC and the PDP and leaders of these parties need to do work on grassroot level then only they can wish surprising results,” Zahoor Malik a political analyst said.
Two years later, former CM Ghulam Nabi Azad formed the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) after resigning from the Congress. The party was contesting its first election, fielding candidates in Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri and Udhampur. Party candidates, however, lost their deposits in all three.
In Srinagar, DPAP candidate secured mere 15,104 votes for a 2.24% vote share. In Anantnag Rajouri, Saleem Parray bagged 25,561 for another 2.61% share and in Udhampur, GM Saroori garnered 39,599 for a 3.5% share.
DPAP spokesperson Salman Nazimi said the candidates were fresh faces, adding, “It was definitely tough to chase religious leaders. Azad sahib gave a chance to the young people. We’re really happy that Engineer Rashid won. We supported him, and his win was important.”
Notably, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti had during the election campaign dubbed both the parties a Bharatiya Janata Party proxy. Apni Party had extended its support to Lone on the Baramulla parliamentary seat, but the leader also failed to bag the seat. Source
