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While backing Rahul Gandhi at the national level, Mehbooba Mufti remained non-committal on a possible electoral alliance between the PDP and Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.
Mehbooba Mufti said the Congress was the only party with the capability to take on the BJP at the national level. (Photos: X)
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has once again backed Rahul Gandhi as a potential Prime Ministerial face of the INDIA bloc for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, praising the Congress leader for taking on PM Narendra Modi’s government and saying she has no doubt that he can become Prime Minister after the next general election.
Speaking to CNN-News18, Mufti said the Congress was the only party with the capability to take on the BJP at the national level. She also praised Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, saying he had demonstrated the “capacity and capability” to challenge the BJP and had remained vocal against the Modi government.
Mufti described Rahul Gandhi as an “aggressive” leader who had consistently taken on the Modi government and said she believed he would become Prime Minister after the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
Her comments come at a time when the INDIA bloc has not formally announced a Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2029 elections.
Mehbooba Keeps J&K Alliance Question Open
While backing Rahul Gandhi at the national level, Mehbooba Mufti remained non-committal on a possible electoral alliance between the PDP and Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.
She said she did not want to comment on any possible state-level alliance at this stage.
The PDP and Congress are both constituents of the INDIA bloc, but their electoral arrangements in Jammu and Kashmir have not always followed a common strategy. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and National Conference reached a seat-sharing arrangement, while the PDP contested all three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir Valley after failing to reach an agreement with the NC.
The developments also underline the complicated relationship between the three parties in Jammu and Kashmir. While the PDP and NC are both part of the INDIA bloc, they have competed directly against each other in several elections.
Congress-NC Equation In J&K
The Congress is currently aligned with the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir, making any future PDP-Congress arrangement politically significant.
The relationship between Congress and NC has also seen differences over political representation and alliance arrangements, although the two parties have continued to work together in the broader J&K political framework.
Against this backdrop, Mufti’s decision to strongly back Rahul Gandhi while keeping the question of a state-level PDP-Congress alliance open could be significant for the opposition’s future strategy in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, any suggestion that Congress and PDP will formally join hands for the 2029 elections remains speculative at this stage.
The PDP and Congress have worked together in the past. In 2002, the two parties formed a coalition government in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state after the Assembly elections, with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed serving as chief minister during the first half of the coalition’s term.
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Ask News18PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has backed Rahul Gandhi as a potential Prime Ministerial face of the INDIA bloc for the 2029 Lok Sabha elections, praising his leadership and aggressive approach against the Modi government.
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Srinagar, India, India
October 01, 2026, 18:50 IST
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