Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari believes his outfit is the only one that seeks votes in the name of the nation. But he also sees the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as “its natural ally”.
“The BJP seeks vote in the name of Modi, the National Conference in the name of Sheikh Abdullah, the Congress in the name of the Gandhis and Nehru, and the PDP (The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party) in the name of Mufti sahab (former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed). Altaf Bukhari’s (party) is the only party that seeks votes in the name of the nation. I seek votes in the name of Hindustan,” he said in an interview with ThePrint.
Despite this, Bukhari, a former leader of the PDP, believes the BJP and his party are “natural allies” under the current circumstances. He also wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to secure another term.
“The BJP is very clear that there should be peace in Jammu and Kashmir. We are also for that. They cannot support the PDP or the NC because they are fighting against dynastic politics. We become natural allies in these conditions,” he says, adding that Kashmir’s “destiny lies with Delhi and India”.
Bukhari’s Apni Party has fielded candidates in two of the five Lok Sabha seats in J&K — Srinagar, which voted 13 May, and Anantnag-Rajouri, which will go to polls 25 May.
Although the BJP hasn’t fielded a candidate in Anantnag-Rajouri, it’s backing Zafar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party.
Justifying the BJP’s backing of the Apni Party candidate at Anantnag-Rajouri, Bukhari said that although the two parties had “no formal alliance”, the former offered its support after he “made an appeal to everyone given that his party was new”.
Significantly, this will be the Apni Party’s first major election since its founding in 2020.
“Our narrative has been accepted and therefore, people are voting in such large numbers. I want to congratulate the Apni Party and its cadre. This is our country.”
Parties such as the NC and the PDP have often accused Bukhari’s party of being BJP’s ‘B- Team’. He dismissed the allegation, instead wondering how the NC and the PDP have allied with the Shiv Sena as part of the opposition INDIA bloc despite being ideologically different.
“In politics, there is no A, B, and C team. There is only ideology and alliances,” he said, accusing the PDP and the NC of “getting funds from the Shiv Sena”.
He also took a dig at the two parties for having previously had alliances with the BJP. While the NC was part of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government from 1998-2002, the PDP ran the erstwhile state with the BJP from March 2015 until the alliance collapsed in 2018.
“I also know that the two parties will once again join hands with them (read, the BJP) after the elections are over. We have seen that they abuse Delhi before elections but end up joining them once the elections are over. Delhi also accepts them,” he said.
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‘Our destiny is with Delhi’
Hoping Modi secures another term, Bukhari said he was clear that “a strong prime minister” was needed to solve the problems in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We want a strong prime minister. We want statehood for Jammu and Kashmir and need to get our problems solved,” he said. “I want to see Narendra Modi as the PM again.”
He believes that the BJP should count the outlawed Islamist organisation Jamaat-e-Islami’s willingness to return to democratic politics as a win. The radical organisation, which was banned by the Modi government in 2019, announced in March that it would be willing to rejoin democratic politics if the ban is lifted.
“I think if the BJP has one major win in Kashmir, it is that Jamaat has said they believe in the democracy and integration of India.”
He also sees the record turnouts at Srinagar and Baramulla as a win for the party’s “politics and narrative”. “Our (the party’s) narrative is that our (the Kashmiris) destiny is with Delhi. Our problems will be solved only by Delhi.”
Last December, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to hold the J&K polls by September 2024 — its first in 10 years.
Bukhari is confident of playing the kingmaker in the assembly election. “We’ve done as much as a total pro-India party could in the last four years. We don’t play with the sentiments of people like other parties. The next government will not be formed without the Apni Party.”
Apni Party, he believes, is a “force that nobody can ignore”. “We’re like salt in food. We are the taste of politics.”
He also declared that the Apni Party would fight the assembly polls not only in Kashmir but also in Jammu, adding that the battle for Anantnag-Rajouri was a precursor to that contest.
‘Voted for Farooq in 2019’
Once considered a close aide of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Bukhari founded the Apni Party in 2020 — just over a year after he was expelled from the PDP on the back of growing differences with the party chief and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Mehbooba took over as the PDP chief and J&K chief minister following her father’s death in 2016.
According to Bukhari, his expulsion came after he demanded that the party presidentship should be handed over to someone else.
“It was done because, on 12 December, I had said at a meeting: ‘Mehbooba ji, there is growing anger against you and the party. It was your administrative failure that people died in 2016 (the Kashmir unrest). Several MLAs and leaders left you within some time of leaving power (after the PDP-BJP alliance collapsed). It’s your administrative failure’.”
He also calls Mehbooba an “utter failure as chief minister”. “According to her, there is no PDP without Muftis,” he said, adding that in 2019, he voted for NC chief Farooq Abdullah. “The National Conference had appealed for votes and I voted,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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