Ghulam Nabi Azad’s party in a fix as he steps back from J-K assembly poll campaign. ‘Upto candidates now,’ says ex-CM

Ghulam Nabi Azad, the head of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP), will not campaign for party candidates in the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir due to health issues.

The party, founded two years ago by the former Congress veteran, has fielded 13 candidates for the first phase of voting in the Union Territory scheduled for September 18. Their fate remains uncertain now.

On Wednesday, Azad, 75, regretted his inability to campaign for DPAP candidates. “The unforeseen circumstances have forced me to step back from the campaign trail... The candidates should assess whether they can continue without my presence. If they feel my absence would impact their chances, they have the freedom to withdraw their candidacy," DPAP said in a statement quoting Azad, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

This is the first assembly election that the DPAP is contesting after being floated by Azad in September 2022 after quitting the Congress party after decades of association. The 13 names who filed nomination for phase 1 voting include two former MLAs Abdul Majeed Wani and Mohammad Amin Bhat.

DPAP, which projected itself as an ‘alternative’ to regional parties – the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – had a dismal electoral debut. All three Lok Sabha candidates lost their deposits in the 2024 general elections. Things turned from bad to worse with desertions in the run up tp assembly polls. Many leaders, including treasurer and former minister, Taj Mohi-ud-Din, quit the party.

Jammu and Kashmir will vote in three phases beginning September 18. This will be the first assembly election held in the erstwhile state in ten years.

In the last assembly election held in 2014, PDP emerged as the single-largest party with 28 seats. The BJP finished second with 25 seats. The PDP, then led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Mehbooba's father, stitched up an unprecedented alliance with the BJP, a party with ideologies poles apart.

The PDP-BJP government, however, could not last the full term as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support to PDP in 2018. Since then, the erstwhile state has been under central rule.