Sajad Lone's J&K People's Conference quits PAGD, accuses other members of fielding proxy candidates in DDC polls

Srinagar: People’s Conference chairperson Sajad Lone on Tuesday announced his party’s exit from the seven-party conglomerate People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), saying some constituents of the grouping had fielded proxy candidates in the district development council (DDC) elections. Lone announced the decision in a letter to the PAGD head and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah. “On the face of it, PAGD won these elections unambiguously having won the maximum number of seats. We can’t hide statistics and apart from the number of seats that PAGD won, another important statistical variable in the context of 5 August (Abrogation of Article 370) is the number of votes polled against the PAGD,” Lone said in the letter released to the media in Srinagar. He said he believes the votes polled against the PAGD are mostly those cast by proxies of PAGD constituent parties against official PAGD candidates. “And the net outcome of selectively voting for and against PAGD is a very poor vote share. This is certainly not the vote share that people of J&K deserved post 5 August,” Lone said in the letter.