While in Istanbul Draga was recruited as one of the first members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) by its founder and fellow Albanian Ibrahim Temo.

[7][8] The Üsküp CUP branch pushed for restoration of the Ottoman constitution and it became an important centre due to the involvement of many Albanian notables with its membership by April 1908 exceeding 100 people.

[12][2][13][11] Toward the end of 1908 Draga and other notables in Kosovo viewed Isa Boletini as a nuisance, threat and loyalist of sultan Abdulhamid II and lobbied the new Young Turk government for his arrest and destruction of his kulla (tower house).

[6] Class differences of Draga, a landowner wanting law and order and Boletini, a chieftain preferring maintenance of old privileges and autonomy along with the disagreement in Ferizoviç about the restoration of the constitution resulted in the rift.

[6] On 10 April 1910, Rexhep Bey and others left the CUP due to disagreement and clashes in parliament over the repressive actions that the government and the army were carrying out in Kosovo.

[2] On 18 August 1912, Draga was part of the moderate faction that managed to convince other leaders of the revolt Idriz Seferi, Curri and Boletini of the conservative group to accept the agreement with the Ottomans for extending Albanian sociopolitical rights and legal autonomy.