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| Dismayed by voting trends, hit by NC's betrayal, Congress a worried lot | | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, Apr 11: As heavy polling in the plains of Jammu for Jammu-Poonch Parliamentary constituency has left Congress worried, the grand old party of the country has to swallow another bitter pill in the form of its ally National Conference's (NC) 'betrayal' in the hilly districts of Rajouri and Poonch where the 'senior coalition partner' remained aloof all though the contest in galvanizing the NC cadres' votes to brighten the prospects of coalition candidate.
Sources within Congress informed Early Times that the voting pattern in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch particularly polling in parts of Rajouri indicated that local NC leaders and workers did not put in their sincere efforts to garner support for the Congress- NC joint candidate Madan Lal Sharma with the result a major chunk of NC votes went in favour of Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) nominee Yashpal Sharma.
"Local NC leadership left the Congress in lurch…. NC has ditched the Congress... Congress was banking heavily on NC vote bank in Rajouri but it didn't materialize as the NC votes en masse got deviated towards PDP which was totally unexpected…The permutations and combinations for Congress went haywire in Rajouri," said sources.
"Except for NC top brass including Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and few others, no Rajouri based leader or activist worked hard to motivate their supporters to vote for Congress… The local NC leadership as well as grass root level workers did little to capitalize on the impact made by Omar Abdullah during his campaign trial in frontier districts of Rajouri and Poonch…. Soon after Omar's departure, the local NC leadership went into hibernation which left the field open for PDP to penetrate into NC votes," sources added.
The sources further said now that the NC's duplicity is out in the open, the state Congress leadership must self-introspect as the party is staring at a drubbing in its fiefdom of Rajouri and Poonch despite contesting the election in alliance.
"The reasons for NC votes tilting towards PDP at the eleventh hour must be looked into… It should be thoroughly probed that how the NC leadership failed in its duty to persuade its loyalists to support coalition candidate," said sources.
If sources are to be believed then the Congress observers appointed for Rajouri district have already sent a secret report which has squarely blamed the local NC leadership's non-serious approach in influencing its vote bank to ensure maximum vote share for party nominee.
The game plan of Congress in Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha's Rajouri-Poonch areas has surely backfired as NC's backtracking in the final stage costs it dearly which is already in a tight spot in Jammu and Samba districts due to heavy turnout.
With hardly any support from NC, the party could not take advantage of gathering traditional NC votes which ultimately went to PDP's kitty. |
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