Why did the Grand Democratic Alliance fail in Sindh?

The Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), an electoral alliance of various parties and influential political figures in Sindh, after protesting in Jamshoro last week, also on the national highway near Moro city on Tuesday, alleging rigging of the results of the general elections 2024. Protested.

A large number of people also participated in the February 16 protest on the M-Nine Motorway at the Jamshoro Interchange near Hyderabad, which was followed by a protest near Moro on Tuesday.

When and why was the Grand Democratic Alliance formed?

A Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) was formed in 1997 by the late Nasrullah Khan in opposition to the government of Nawaz Sharif, while the Grand Democratic Alliance formed in Sindh was led by the spiritual leader of the Huras and the head of the Muslim League (Functional) Pir Pagada Pir Sibghat. Allah Shah Rashidi created it to defeat the Pakistan Peoples Party in Sindh before the 2018 elections.

Apart from Muslim League (Functional), Ayaz Latif Plaju’s National People’s Movement, Syed Zain Shah’s Sindh United Party (SUP) and Safdar Abbasi’s Pakistan People’s Party (Workers) are included in this political and electoral alliance.

Apart from this, GDA also includes those political figures, who do not have any political party but contest elections in their areas due to their influence. Among them are two former chief ministers of Sindh including Arbab Ghulam Rahim and Liaquat Jatoi. Apart from this, Dr. Zulfikar Mirza and Dr. Fahmida Mirza are also part of the alliance.

During the 2018 general elections, this alliance also got the support of Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

How many candidates of GDA participated in general elections 2024?

In the recent general elections, the Grand Democratic Alliance took the election symbol of the star and allotted symbols to its candidates in various districts.

According to the document obtained by Independent Urdu, only 27 candidates were fielded by GDA out of total 61 general seats of National Assembly in Sindh. Apart from this, only 74 candidates were fielded by GDA for 130 general seats of Sindh Assembly.

According to the results of the general elections by the Election Commission, out of 130 general seats of the Sindh Provincial Assembly, GDA won only two seats while all 27 candidates of GDA contested for the total 61 seats of the National Assembly in the province. They lost.

GDA failed to win any seats from its strong constituencies including Tharparkar, Sanghar, Badin, Larkana and Mirpur Khas.

What caused the worst defeat of GDA?

In the past, former President Asif Ali Zardari’s close associate and former Interior Minister of Sindh, Dr. Zulfikar Mirza, got angry and separated from Pakistan People’s Party and Asif Zardari in 2011.

After that, Dr. Zulfikar Mirza started contesting elections as an independent from Badin and joined the GDA as an independent before the 2018 general elections.

In general elections 2024, the nomination papers of Dr. Zulfikar Mirza, his wife ex-speaker National Assembly Fahmida Mirza, their sons Hussam Mirza and Hasnain Mirza were rejected due to objections and it took time to restore the papers on appeal.

Zulfiqar Mirza’s son Hussam Mirza was allotted GDA’s election symbol ‘Star’, but despite his efforts, he could not get the GDA symbol and could not contest the elections on the star symbol. Dr. Zulfikar Mirza also did not appear active in his election campaign, which Pakistan Peoples Party took full advantage of.

According to Fayyaz Naich, a political analyst and anchor of Sindhi language TV channel ‘Awaz TV’, Mirza family achieved great success during the municipal elections in 2015, but after 2015, their graph went down and last year. During the election, the nominees of the Mirza family lost badly in the entire district. This candidate had lost 10 town and two municipal committees of Badin district and won only two wards.

Similarly, the strong candidate of GDA and former Sindh Chief Minister Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim was also defeated by Pakistan People’s Party candidate Dr. Mahesh Kumar Malani for the second time in a row in Tharparkar, a desert district of Sindh.

Dr. Mahesh Kumar Malani defeated Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim in the 2018 election as well. In this constituency, a good contest has been seen between Pakistan Peoples Party and GDA.

Pakistan People’s Party candidate Mahesh Kumar Malani, who defeated Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim, became the first minority member of Pakistan to win the general seat for the second time in a row.

Sanghar district has historically been considered a strong political stronghold of the Muslim League functional, where the majority of Pir Pagada followers are. GDA has also faced defeat in NA 209 Sanghar during general elections 2024.

Pakistan People’s Party candidate Shazia Murri won by defeating GDA’s strong candidate Muhammad Khan Junejo from this constituency.

In Larkana, GDA’s strong candidate Moazzam Abbasi defeated Pakistan People’s Party candidate Jameel Soomro in the last election, but due to reshuffle of constituencies before the general elections, Moazzam Abbasi’s voters were divided into two constituencies, so this time. Even Moazzam Abbasi could not succeed.

Similarly, out of the total 61 general seats of the National Assembly in Sindh, none of the 27 candidates nominated by the GDA won and only two candidates out of the 74 candidates nominated by the GDA for the 130 general seats of the Sindh Assembly were successful. maybe

According to Fayyaz Naich: ‘One of the major reasons for the failure of the GDA was the nomination of mostly unknown figures, most of whom had no constituency at all. The GDA leadership did not campaign for their candidates like Bilawal Bhutto, Asifa Bhutto, Faryal Talpur and Asif Ali Zardari for the success of their candidates.

He added: ‘This is not the first election in which GDA could not win. The parties or personalities involved in the GDA coalition were also defeated in the 2008, 2013 and 2018 general elections.

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