Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | JKPC |
| President | Sajjad Gani Lone |
| Chairman | Abdul Gani Vakil |
| Secretary | Imran Raza Ansari |
| Founder | Abdul Ghani Lone,Iftikhar Hussain Ansari |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Headquarters | VIP-4, Church Lane -Sonwar,Srinagar |
| Youth wing | Youth JKPC |
| Women's wing | JKPC Women's Wing |
| ECI Status | Unrecongnized |
| Alliance | NDA (2016–2018) PAGD (2020–2021) |
| Seats in Lok Sabha | 0 / 543 |
| Seats in Rajya Sabha | 0 / 245 |
| Seats in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly | 1 / 90 |
| Seats in District Development Council | 8 / 280 |
| Election symbol | |
| Apple | |
| Website | |
| https://www.jkpcofficial.org/ | |
TheJammu and Kashmir People's Conference is a political party inJammu and Kashmir, India, founded byAbdul Ghani Lone andMolvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari in 1978.[1][2] It is currently led bySajjad Lone.[3] It won two seats in the2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election and one seat in theJammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the2024 elections. The party has origins in separatism and has since shifted into being an associate of theBharatiya Janata Party.[4]
Abdul Ghani Lone founded the People's Conference in 1977 and it was the only separatist organization registered with the Election Commission of India till 1996.
In 1993, Lone joined the secessionist Hurriyat Conference. His ideology about Kashmir was to make it an 'Independent Kashmir' after being anti-India as well as anti-Pakistan.[5]
Lone is the son ofAbdul Gani Lone, the formerCongress leader who turned into a frontlineseparatist leader. The older Lone was allegedly killed inSrinagar by ISI-backed militants on 21 May 2002.
Once a seasoned mainstream politician, who was first elected to theJ&K Assembly as a Congress MLA in 1967, Abdul Gani Lone was arrested for alleged anti-India activities in 1990. He was also a founder-member of the separatist conglomerate theAll Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC). He also opposed foreign militants in the valley.
After his father was gunned down,Sajjad Gani Lone remained with the Hurriyat for a while but in 2004, he revived the People's Conference party that the older Lone had launched in 1978. He also parted ways with his elder brother Bilal Ghani Lone, who continues to be part of theHurriyat Conference and in response Bilal disassociated himself from party and he launched his own party called Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Independent Movement as a splinter separatist faction of People's Conference.[1]
In 2006, Lone put forward a controversial plan, titled Achievable Nationhood, to unify the divided territory ofKashmir and give itautonomy. The 268-page "vision document" attempted to achieve an economically single boundary-lessJammu and Kashmir Economic Union withIndia andPakistan jointly managing defence and foreign affairs of their respective portions of Kashmir.
In 2008, at the height of theAmarnath Shrine Board land row, Lone believed that the protests were a mass uprising against Indian rule and decided to boycott the Assembly elections.
By the 2009 general elections, he became the first frontline separatist leader to plunge into mainstream politics. Contesting as an Independent from theBaramullaLok Sabhaconstituency, he lost toNational Conference’s Sharifuddin Shariq.
After the 2014 general elections, Lone had a meeting with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, where he referred to the PM as his elder brother.
"I came as aKashmiri to meet thePrime Minister and I was pleasantly surprised with his down-to-earth personality, his vision about bringing in investments into the state," PTI quoted him as having said then.
The purpose of the meeting soon became clear that the People's Conference fielded candidates in the 2014 J&K Assembly elections, winning two seats, including Lone himself. He was made a minister from the BJP quota in theMufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP-BJP government, a job he was given again when Mufti's daughter Mehbooba becamechief minister a few months after his death.[6] In 2024 elections, the party won 1 seat with Lone winning from Handwara.