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| Refugees, OBCs factor in elections | | Claiming victories | | Neha
JAMMU, Apr 5: The election campaigning in Jammu province, like other parts of the country, is in full swing. The Congress-NC coalition, the BJP, the JKNPP, the PDP and the BSP have all been claiming that their candidates would emerge victorious in the elections to be held on April 10 and 17 in Jammu province. The NC-Congress coalition is claiming that the people of Jammu province would defeat the "communal and divisive" BJP. The BSP is saying that its candidate would win the upcoming election as the SC community and the OBCs are fed up with the state government and as they have been denied their due share in the polity and economy. The PDP is claiming that it would perform well in Jammu province as it has been exposing what it calls the "misdeeds" and "anti-people" policies of the NC-Congress coalition government. As for the BJP and the JKNPP, they have been claiming that they would win both the Lok Sabha seats saying they have been championing the cause of the people of Jammu province, as also the national cause in the state since decades. The BJP leadership has also been saying that the Modi factor in Jammu province would click and it would be able to replicate 1998 and 1999 in Jammu province by winning both the seats hands down. These are their claims and they have every right to say what they have been saying. No party says that it is losing the election.
Three important factors would surely determine the fate of the political parties in the fray in Jammu province. A party that would get a substantial chunk of votes of the refugees from West Pakistan, Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir and the Valley would be the winner. Similarly, the attitude of the other Backward Classes (OBCs) would determine the outcome of the ongoing electoral exercise. The OBCs constitute nearly 20 per cent of the state's population. And lastly, the Modi factor would be an important factor. It just cannot be ignored.
"Refugees are, it appears, unlikely to vote for the Kashmir-centric and Kashmir-based parties. The reason is that the ruling coalition has failed the refugees from West Pakistan and POJK by not doing anything to mitigate their hardships and meet their age old demands. Some four months back, the Revenue Department of Jammu & Kashmir had prepared a scheme worth Rs 7000 crore for one-time settlement of all refugees, but the proposal could not make its way to the State Cabinet for approval, which, as per the earlier proposal, had to recommend the same to the Government of India for funding. It is this failure of the coalition government that has angered the refugees. In fact, they are seething with anger. Their number is more than one million. As for the internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, they are unlikely to support the coalition candidate for obvious reasons, the most important being their opposition to what they call "divisive and pro-separatist politics".
The political attitude of the OBCs is also no different. They are not very pleased with the ruling coalition and have dubbed it as communal. Only Only the other day, their leadership held a meeting in Jammu under the banner of All India Backward Classes Union (AIBCU) to discuss the problems facing their communities. After a threadbare discussion, the leadership of the OBCs said that the ruling coalition was the most communal, which had cheated the state's OBCs "by not implementing the 27 per cent reservation in the state". Not just this, they condemned the coalition partners saying they "never respected the Indian Constitution" and "apex court's judgment" under the "garb of Article 370". In fact, they termed the recruitment policy as "more dangerous than militants". If what the AIBCU leadership said is any indication, then it can be said that they are unlike to vote for the coalition candidate.
All the political parties, including the Congress, the BJP and the PDP, are working overtime to win over these important segments of society and this can be seen from the statements being made and issued on a daily basis by them. Let's see who these social groups finally vote for. |
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