Farooz Ahmad Lone
Srinagar, July 23 (KNB): In a controversial statement to Kashmir news Bureaus, the senior people’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and a former MLA Charar-e-Sharief, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura said that Khalil Bandh, former PDP leader and MLA Pulwama, was not founding member of the party.
“Mr. Khalid Bandh was not a founding member of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because the party was found in July, 1999 and he (Khalil Bandh) joined the party in 2002 as many others. I still remember, we were about sixty to seventy founding members of the party and the party kept growing.” Said senior PDP leader, Ghulam Nabi Hanjura in an interview with the Kashmir News Bureau (KNB) with reference to the resignation of the handful PDP party leader especially Khalil Bandh.
Khalil Bandh resigned from the party in a letter addressed to PDP party chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti citing the reason that the party was not worth continuing.
Bandh had also based his resignation on an allegation that the party had not only neglected but also humiliated its senior leaders and its basic principles were being compromised.
Hanjura added, “In democracy, creation of new political parties and switching parties by politicians, especially during election time, is order of the day. And it poses no challenge to us (PDP) as it’s a two-way traffic; there are some from the NC and other parties who switch to PDP and some switch from PDP to other parties.”
Pertinent to mention, the top notch newspapers of the country as well as the state like the Indian Express, The Hindustan Times, The Tribune India etc termed him (Khalil Bandh) as the founding member of the PDP party, a regional political party of the Jammu and Kashmir state.
After the government fell as BJP pulled its allegiance, there have been many cases of resignation and switching to other parties by PDP leader. And Khalil Bandh was the latest example. (KNB)