SRI NAGAR: In yet another setback to six parties’ Gupkar Alliance on Article 370 restoration, one of its constituent parties, J&K Peoples Movement (JKPM)’s president Javed Mustafa Mir on Monday joined Apni Party.
Javed has been a three-time MLA from Chadoora constituency in Budgam district.
Javed had taken over as the JKPM president last year after its founding president Shah Faesal, who is a former IAS officer, quit politics following his release from detention.
After taking over, Javed had been representing the party in the Gupkar Alliance, which was formed to fight for the restoration of Articles 370 and 35A.
He had attended all the meetings of the Alliance and his party had also contested the first-ever District Development Council elections jointly with the Alliance parties.
The Gupkar Alliance, which was initially a seven-party alliance, suffered a jolt in January this year after one of its parties, the Peoples Conference (PC) led by Sajjad Gani Lone, quit the alliance after accusing the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of fielding proxy candidates during the DDC polls.
Both Apni Party and PC are being accused by the NC, PDP and other parties of being B-team of the BJP. Javed, who had quit the PDP to join the JKPM, had been elected to the J&K assembly thrice on the PDP ticket.
On quitting the two parties, Javed said: “At times, you feel like switching over to good organisations. I am at a will to decide on my political decisions. My only endeavour is that people should benefit from our efforts.”
He added, “As long as I was with the Gupkar Alliance, I did my job there. When I was there, the issue about Articles 370 and 35 A was in the court and when I joined Apni Party, it was still in the court.”