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| Omar ate words, supports Azad | | Rajya Sabha polls | |
Neha
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 28: NC working president Omar Abdullah, who suffered an ignominious defeat in the Sonawar Assembly constituency and could win from another constituency, Beerwah, with a slender margin of about 900 votes, has, it seems, lost his way. His own personal defeat and the defeat of his party and his unpopular government have so rattled him that he has not been in a position to take decisions. The defeats have left him so confused and directionless. His party could win only 15 seats, 13 less than its 2008 tally. He wanted an alliance with the BJP, but with no success. He didn't get any positive response from the BJP. After being virtually rebuffed, he denied that he or anyone else on his behalf had tried to stitch an alliance with the BJP, the second largest party in the assembly after the PDP.
Then, Omar Abdullah turned to the PDP. He urged the PDP to accept its offer of unconditional support. So much so, the NC offered its support to it in writing through the state governor. The PDP leadership remained unmoved. In fact, the PDP said the governor rule was better than the alliance with a defeated party. The response the NC's moves evoked from the PDP was the second rebuff. Stung by the kind of response the NC evoked from the PDP, Omar Abdullah and his spokespersons or a former JKLF activist unleashed a vilification campaign against the PDP.
In the meantime, the Election Commission of India announced the poll schedule for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Jammu & Kashmir. Omar Abdullah made it loud and clear that he would want his ailing father Farooq Abdullah to enter the Rajya Sabha. He tweeted to this effect the day reports appeared in a section of the print media that the Congress poll managers had fielded certain persons to persuade the NC leadership to support the candidature of the outgoing Leader of the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad. Both Azad and Omar had lambasted each other during and after the election campaign. While Azad had held Omar Abdullah responsible for the decline of the Congress party in the state, especially in Jammu, Omar had charged Azad with stabbing him in the back by openly criticizing his style of functioning.
From the stand Omar Abdullah took it appeared that he would stick to it. But it was not to be. He ate his words on Tuesday after meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi, who has also all her credibility, and not only offered his party's support to the candidature of Azad but also forged an alliance with the Congress for contesting the Rajya Sabha elections knowing it full well that it will lose the election because the composition of the assembly is such, as also because the PDP and the BJP practically enjoy the support of 56 MLAs. NC and Congress would fight three seats. The NC would field two candidates and the Congress one. As for Azad, it is difficult to say if he could make it to the Rajya Sabha this time. The PDP and the BJP will leave no stone unturned to make a clean sweep, as they are in a commanding position.
It's no wonder then that many have described the decision of Omar Abdullah to forge an alliance with the Congress as a climb down as well as a manifestation of his frustration and desperation. So much so, some of them have described the NC as the B-team of the Congress. Hitherto, it was the Congress which was described by the BJP, the Panthers Party and others as the B-team of the NC. Even many within the Congress held the same view. All in all, it can be said that Omar is playing a negative politics which doesn't augur well for the future of the Kashmir's premier political party with communal overtones. |
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