SRINAGAR: Peoples Conference (PC) on Sunday took the third of erstwhile Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into its fold. It also took the party’s Jammu spokesman Abhijeet Jasrotia.
The move also indicates that Sajad Gani Lone intends to build his party on pan-Jammu Kashmir basis and do away with its general tag of being north Kashmir specific. The former MLA who joined the PC in Jammu is Baqir Rizvi, who represented Zanskar constituency.
Lone has already taken the uncle-nephew combine of the PDP that had led the rebellion in the party. Imran Raza Ansari and Abid Ansari joined the PC recently. Rizvi is the third PDP member to join Lone.
Reports from Jammu suggest that apart from Rizvi, PDPs additional spokesperson Abhijeet Jasrotia, and lawyers Abrar Ahmad and Irfan Inquilabi from Poonch and Ashish Pandita also joined PC.
With Bakir’s joining of PC, the PDP has lost almost half a dozen lawmakers so far. These include Dr Haseeb A Drabu, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Imran Raza Ansari, Abid Ansari, Mohammad Abbas Wani and Bakir Rizvi. One has gone to NC, three to PC and two are keeping their cards close to their chest.
