Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) leader Ghulam Nabi Azad will not campaign for party candidates in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir elections due to health concerns.
The party, founded two years ago by the former Congress veteran, has fielded 13 candidates for the first phase of voting in the union territory, scheduled for September 18. Their fate is still uncertain.
On Wednesday, Azad, 75, lamented his inability to campaign for DPAP candidates. “The unforeseen circumstances have forced me to take a step back from the campaign trail… The candidates should assess whether they can continue without my presence. If they feel that my absence would affect their chances, they have the liberty to withdraw their candidature,” DPAP said in a statement quoting Azad, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
This is the first assembly election that the DPAP is contesting after it was launched by Azad in September 2022 after it quit the Congress party after decades of association. The 13 names that filed nominations for phase 1 voting include two former MLAs Abdul Majeed Wani and Mohammad Amin Bhat.
DPAP, which billed itself as an ‘alternative’ to regional parties – the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – had a dismal electoral debut. All three Lok Sabha candidates lost their deposits in the 2024 general elections. Things went from bad to worse with defections in the run-up to the state assembly elections. Many leaders, including treasurer and former minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din, quit the party.
Jammu and Kashmir will vote in three phases, starting on September 18. These are the first elections for the former state in a decade.
In the last elections in 2014, the PDP emerged as the largest party with 28 seats. The BJP finished second with 25 seats. The PDP, then led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba's father, forged an unprecedented alliance with the BJP, a party with ideologies that were miles apart.
However, the PDP-BJP government could not survive the full term as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support to the PDP in 2018. Since then, the erstwhile state has been under central rule.