The Kashmir Pulse

SRINAGAR — In the past three years, seven new political parties, including a few little-known groups, from Jammu & Kashmir have been registered by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The ECI records accessed by the news agency KNO show that since 2019, seven political parties have been registered by the Commission after they completed the requisite formalities.

According to the documents, National Awami United Party, National Democratic Party (Indian), Aman Aur Shanti Tehreek-e-Jammu & Kashmir, Voice of Labour Party (Jammu & Kashmir), Haq Insaaf Party, Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement and Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party have been registered by the ECI after 2019.

While details are not available about office-bearers of five of these parties, Jammu & Kashmir People's Movement and Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party were respectively floated by IAS officer Dr Shah Faesal and former minister Syed Altaf Bukhari.

Faesal, who had floated the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) in 2019, was detained under the Public Safety Act after the abrogation of Article 370. After his release, Faesal made exit from both politics as well as JKPM. He was recently reinstated and posted as Deputy Secretary in the Union Ministry of Culture.

The Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party, headed by Altaf Bukhari, came into existence after the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganization of Jammu & Kashmir. Comprising more than 20 former legislators, the JKAP was formally launched in March 2020 and was registered by the poll body ahead of the District Development Council elections in 2020.

The ECI records show that Jammu & Kashmir Nationalist People's Front headed by Sheikh Muzaffar Ahmad has submitted an application this year for its registration.

It is worthwhile to mention that former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad launched a new political party on Monday.

A look at the history of Kashmir’s regional parties reveals that National Conference and People's Conference are among the oldest regional political parties which are currently part of the electoral process.

While NC came into existence in 1939, the People's Conference was formed in 1978. Jammat-e-Islamia, which was banned in 2019 by the Government of India, was also participating in the electoral process before 1987.

Awami National Conference was founded by former chief minister late Ghulam Mohammad Shah after his split with the National Conference in 1984. On the other hand, the People's Democratic Party came into existence in 1999.

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SRINAGAR — The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has reinstated Jammu and Kashmir’s IAS officer Shah Faesal and posted him as Deputy Secretary in the Union Ministry for Tourism.

As per reports, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Friday ordered for reinstation of Jammu and Kashmir’s IAS officer Shah Faesal and posted him as Deputy Secretary in the Union Ministry for Tourism.

Faesal, a 2010 batch IAS topper of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre which is now AGMUT, resigned from the services in January 2019 and formed the political party Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM).

However, he quit politics in August 2020 and since then, reports were circulating that Faesel will be reinstated soon.

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SRINAGAR — Days after its “exit” from the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM), the political party founded by IAS officer Dr Shah Faesal in 2019, merged with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday.

Reports, as per the news agency Kashmir News Observer, said that JKPM President Dr Ghulam Mustafa Khan and other officer bearers of the party joined AAP in New Delhi.

https://twitter.com/MAminDar6/status/1547529096015613952

The JKPM, which was launched with much fanfare, was pushed to the political margins of Kashmir politics after Shah Faesal and former MLA Javed Mustafa resigned from it.

In the 2020 DDC polls, JKPM was part of the PAGD but it recently announced that it was no more part of the conglomerate.

The JKPM and AAP have diametrically opposite stances on the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre. While Kejriwal had supported the abrogation of Article 370, JKPM challenged it in the Supreme Court.

“We support the government on its decisions on J&K. We hope this will bring peace and development in the state,” Kejriwal tweeted on August 5, 2019.

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