Srinagar: Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Salim Gilani on Sunday joined Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party.The PDP has offered him a ticket to contest on Srinagar ‘s Khanyar seat in the upcoming J&K Assembly elections, the party sources said.Mr. Gilani’s Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party was a constituent of the separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference.Recently, he had while speaking to this newspaper said, “We, by declaring elections as forbidden fruit, perhaps committed a historical blunder. Politics in a game of possibilities. We never paid any attention towards possibilities and meanwhile much water has flown down the Jhelum”. He was referring to the separatists boycotting elections held in J&K post the outbreak of militancy in 1989.On Sunday, Mr. Gilani, after joining the PDP in the presence of the party president and former chief minister Ms. Mufti, said that its ideology is close to his heart as it talks about the Kashmir issue and people languishing in jails. He said, “I couldn’t see any better platform for me other than the PDP. I was always inspired by the party patron Late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed’s vision. He always talked about the resolution of Kashmir issue. The party is also seeking the release of hundreds of people languishing in jails.”Asked about his association with the Hurriyat Conference, he said, “I was feeling proud to be there and I’m feeling proud to be with the PDP now. I will carry forward the PDP’s vision as I fit in this ideology only.”Welcoming Mr. Gilani into the party fold, Ms. Mufti said that she wanted him to contest an Assembly election but he refused. “He told us to give chance to someone else,” she said.Several former functionaries and members of proscribed Jamaat-e-Islami, Jammu and Kashmir (JeI) too are contesting the Assembly elections as independents, the decision being termed by some Kashmir watchers as the change of heart. However, others say that J&K’s changing political landscape has forced the JeI men to join the fray.The last time the JeI took part in elections was in 1987 when it joined the fray as part of the Muslim United Front, an amalgamation of various separatist parties and like-minded political groups. Post-1989-90, the JeI had been a part of Hurriyat Conference, which advocated for poll boycotts from 1993 to 2003.However, JeI had in August announced that it would field its former members as independent candidates in select seats in the upcoming Assembly elections. The decision was welcomed by J&K’s regional political parties including National Conference and People’s Democratic Party, terming it a victory of democracy. However, these parties had also reiterated their demand of lifting the ban on the JeI which, as was claimed by PDP president Ms. Mufti, has “contributed a lot in the education sector, helped people in floods of 2014 and Covid.” Meanwhile, journalist -turned- politician Suhail Bukhari who quit the PDP last month after being denied a party ticket to contest from home constituency Kreeri-Wagora in the Baramulla district on Sunday joined the Congress party. Former minister and NC leader from Jammu Babu Jagjeevan Lal also joined the Congress. Both of them were welcomed in the party by JKPCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra at function here.
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