PDP supports INDIA bloc on ideological basis: Mehbooba Mufti

Rajouri/Jammu, May 21

Despite fielding her party’s candidates against the NC on three Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said her party continues to be a part of the INDIA bloc on an ideological basis and agrees with it on the need to safeguard the Constitution.

The NC, also a part of the INDIA bloc, has put up three candidates on Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seats after reaching an agreement with the Congress, which has put up its nominees in Jammu, Udhampur, and Ladakh.

The PDP, however, was not given any seat and the party subsequently decided to fight elections against NC on the Valley seat, while extending its support to Congress in the Jammu region.

Mehbooba herself is in the fray from the Anantnag-Rajouri seat, which goes to polls on May 25. She is likely to get a stiff fight from NC former minister and influential Gujjar leader Mian Altaf and Apni Party’s Zafar Iqbal Khan Manhas, who is backed by BJP. There are 17 other candidates in the fray from the constituency. Talking to reporters in Rajouri, the PDP chief said she supported INDIA bloc on ideological basis as “Rahul Gandhi is the only leader who is working to safeguard the Constitution”. “The Constitution is the foundation of our country and we need to protect it,” she said.