Eleven leaders from PDP and their supporters joined the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Tuesday. The PDP leaders joined the saffron party in the presence of J&K BJP president Ravinder Raina. PDP which lost 11 leaders along with the supporters is a part of the Gupkar alliance. This event lends a huge dent in the progress and the image of the alliance.

The leaders who joined the BJP are PDP zonal president Sukhdev Singh; Subedar Gian Chand; Prithvi Raj Khokhar; Capt Ram Lal Choudhary; Bhagwan Dass; Tara Chand, Bachan Singh; Ajay Choudhary; Mohinder Singh; Sushil Kumar; and Dr Shadi Lal. Apart from the leaders, hundreds of their supporters too joined the BJP.

Terming the PDP as a sunken ship, Ravinder Raina welcomed the boat jumpers from PDP into the party fold.

Raina further commented that continuous Pakistan-favouring rhetoric and anti-national uttering by senior PDP leadership has made it lose the faith of the public as well as its leaders completely.

On the other hand, National Conference patron and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah had recently hit out at those who were labeling the Gupkar Alliance parties as a “gang”.  He said that the Gupkar alliance members are not enemies of the nation but a group of believers in an India of Mahatama Gandhi. The NC leader said parties which are part of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) cannot fight on a single election symbol, which is why they will be putting up joint candidates during the upcoming District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

Seven mainstream parties of Jammu and Kashmir had come together to form the PAGD on October 15. The alliance has been formed with an objective to seek the restoration of the erstwhile state’s special status. National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, People’s Conference, Awami National Conference, CPM, CPI and J&K People’s Movement are part of the political amalgam. Hitting out at the BJP, Farooq said that the national party was trying to divide the people on the basis of religion.