NEW DELHI, Sept 2: Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) decided on Tuesday not to expel the People’s Conference which has been accused of helping rebel candidates to contest Indian-backed elections in the region.

However, APHC spokesman in New Delhi, Abdul Majid Bandey told Dawn that he had been asked to submit his resignation by Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, head of the 23-member coalition.

Mr Bandey is a member of the People’s Conference group of the slain leader Abdul Ghani Lone. He said Bhat had named a new spokesman for the Delhi office.

Tuesday’s meeting was called to decide possible disciplinary action against the leaders of the People’s Conference. Sajjad and Bilal Lone, sons of Abdul Gani Lone, have been accused of putting up proxy candidates for the assembly elections.

APHC spokesman Altaf Ahmed told reporters at the end of alliance’s meeting over the issue that Lone’s representatives had assured the other constituents of Hurriyat that “it had nothing to do with elections”.

Mr Ahmed said the Peoples Conference had also claimed having taken action against the two who defected the party and joined the poll fray. In this regard, Ahmed read a letter of Sajjad Lone to Hurriyat chairman, which stated the two had been expelled from the basic membership of the party.

Last week, on the last day of the filing of nominations for the first phase of polling, five members of the People’s Conference broke away from the party and filed their nominations as independent candidates.

The People’s Conference has reportedly told the Hurriyat leadership they were firmly with the APHC and that they had nothing to do with the rebel candidates.

The APHC was expected to issue a joint statement saying their political opponents are trying to divide them. APHC sources told Dawn that Maulvi Umar Farooq, a former head of the APHC, had canvassed against the expulsion of Lone’s party while Bhat was in favour of disciplinary action.