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| Cong, NC snap ties to improve performance during ensuing Assembly poll | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 21: When senior Congress leader and former Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, called on the PDP patron, Mufti Mohd. Sayeed, in Srinagar on June 21 it proved a turning point in the five and a half years' long alliance between the Congress and the National Conference. This meeting, notwithstanding the fact that Azad claimed that it was a courtesy call where the two did not discuss politics, was seen by the NC leadership as a new beginning in post-poll alliance between the PDP and the Congress.
And if Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, has claimed that he had conveyed to Sonia Gandhi the party's decision to go alone in the ensuing Assembly election about 10 days ago the meeting had taken place between Sonia and Omar, after three weeks of Azad-Mufti talks. This indicates that Omar took the decision against having any pre-poll alliance with the Congress only after he had come to believe, that too firmly, the Congress was getting ready to snap ties with the NC.
Hence Omar did not want people to feel that the NC leadership has been spurned by the Congress. This is what senior NC leaders claim. But this claim seems to be untenable because had Omar been aspiring for kicking the Congress in its shins it could have leaked out his decision against any pre-poll alliance with the Congress soon after he met Sonia Gandhi. Had he done so he would have earned support from those quarters that are against the Congress. In fact Omar preferred to wait for the Congress decision so that if the Congress announced snapping ties with the NC the NC leadership could win hearts of people in Kashmir who usually are with the setting sun.
That the NC leadership was as much against going to the polls in alliance with the Congress as senior leaders of the state unit of the Congress were. Both the parties had come to believe that the NC lost the Lok Sabha poll in the Kashmir valley because of failure of the Congress in diverting its vote bank in favour of the NC candidates from Srinagar, Anantnag and Baramulla constituencies. Similarly the Congress believed that the pre-poll alliance with the NC during the Lok Sabha election had forced the Congress to draw a blank from the two constituencies in the region of Jammu and from one constituency in Ladakh province.
In reality leaders of the state unit of the Congress were the first to oppose the pre-poll alliance with the NC during the coming Assembly election. The war cry of state Congress leaders against the NC had been heard before the Lok Sabha election results were declared. And since the NC leadership had no idea of Congress getting mauled in the Lok Sabha election in rest of the country it kept mum and had opted for retaining alliance with the Congress.
The NC leadership changed its stand vis-a-vis the Congress only after the Congress faced a rout in the general election.
The second reason responsible for the NC leadership to go alone in the ensuing Assembly election is growing realization among top NC leaders that avoiding defeat in the ensuing election it was necessary to snap ties with any national level party. These senior NC leaders have been advised by party workers and supporters that the party could improve on its performance if it gradually adopted anti-Congress and anti-centre postures.
The NC leadership has been told that if Farooq Abdullah led NC could win the 1983 Assembly election it was the result of anti-centre and anti-Congress postures the party had taken. Yes, as far as Dr Farooq Abdullah is concerned he believes that for the survival of any State Government in Jammu and Kashmir it was mandatory for the state's ruling party to be by the right side of the party or parties that are in power in the centre. This mantra has been implemented after the 1984 events when the Congress engineered defections within the NC which led to the fall of the duly elected Government led by Farooq Abdullah.
The NC leadership believes that post poll alliance will depend on the number of seats each party wins. But compared to the NC the Congress is placed in an advantageous position because it can keep its option open for forging alliance either with the PDP or with the NC. This option is not open either to the NC or to the PDP because the two are like parallel lines which never meet. |
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