CPM veteran Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, also the spokesman for the multi-party alliance fighting for the restoration of Article 370, said on Monday that the grouping was staring at a crisis after the National Conference decided to go solo in the Lok Sabha polls in Kashmir.

Tarigami vowed to try to mend the cracks.

The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which includes parties including the NC and the PDP, appears on the brink after the NC refused to give any seats to rival-turned-ally PDP in the elections. The alliance partners are also part of the INDIA combine.

“Definitely a crisis is there. That is already in the public (domain). How can I say there is no crisis?” Tarigami, who is PAGD spokesman, said.

“The emergence of the PAGD was out of a serious crisis. That crisis continues to be there…. I will try as a concerned citizen, as a part of the PAGD, that this platform survives. I will not say there is no crisis in it. I will try to make this platform survive and become effective and more people are included.”

Tarigami, however, said the alliance was not floated for electoral reasons; its larger goal remains the restoration of Article 370 provisions.

“But you cannot ignore the electoral alliance. You cannot ignore electoral requirements when there are parliamentary elections around,” he said.

The PAGD had a seat-sharing arrangement for the District Development Council (DDC) polls held in 2020 but Tarigami said there were differences at that time as well.

“It (PAGD) is being reduced to an electoral alliance. It is not. We did not have unanimity even in the DDC elections. We fought against each other in the DDC also (at several places) but we were still one on these issues (Article 370) and tried to rope in people from Jammu as well,” he said.