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| Azad puts his credibility at stake by deciding to fight RS polls from J&K | | Begs before NC for support in order to re-enter house of elders | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 1: Former Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad has put his credibility at stake by taking a plunge into the elections for Rajya Sabha from Jammu & Kashmir scheduled to be held on February 7. Azad, who also served as Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir between November 2005 and July 2008 is banking upon the support of the Congress and National Conference legislators for an entry into the Rajya Sabha yet again. However, odds seem to be against him and it is quite likely that he might not get a chance to re-enter the Rajya Sabha from Jammu & Kashmir.
Given the fact that Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have more legislators in the assembly than Congress and National Conference (NC) it would require a herculean task for Azad to get elected for the house of elders this time around. The defeat of Azad which seems to be imminent would put the Congress party in a fix and it would further demoralize the party cadres in the state.
Azad virtually begged with the NC leadership for his entry into the Rajya Sabha and requested the NC leaders to ensure that NC legislators vote for him for one of the four seats of Rajya Sabha. Azad tasted defeat at the hands of BJP's Dr. Jitendra Singh from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat last year.
This is despite the fact that he referred to Omar Abdullah led coalition government as an inefficient government in the state. Azad said that Omar failed to govern the state and as such the state could not achieve much progress since 2009 when Omar took over as Chief Minister. He however, conveniently chose to ignore the fact that Congress had a deputy chief minister in the previous government and the major ministries or departments were manned by its legislators.
During the campaign for the last year's assembly elections, the Congress leader left no stone unturned in castigating the NC and its leadership. However, there was a change of heart within a month or so, with Azad pleading with NC legislators to vote for him in the Rajya Sabha elections.
On its part the National Conference had no option but to support Azad since it did not have any person to fight from the Rajya Sabha seat wherefrom Azad is contesting. The NC has nominated Kashmir's Provincial President, Nasir Aslam Wani and Sajad Ahmad Kitchloo from the two seats. Both Nasir and Sajad are doomed to lose against the PDP and BJP candidates for the two seats where they are contesting.
Azad would hope against hope that all the independents would vote for him if he stands some chance of winning the Rajya Sabha seat. There are chances that Azad still may not be able to pull through given the cumulative strength of PDP and BJP in the assembly that was formed at the culmination of November-December 2014 assembly elections.
PDP emerged the single largest party with 28 seats followed by BJP with 25 seats. National Conference stood third on the list with 15 seats with Congress getting 12 seats. Peoples Conference led by Sajad Gani Lone won two seats while as the remaining five seats were won by independents. |
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