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| Poll results a poor reflection on BJP leadership | | Time For Introspection | |
MINCING NO WORDS
Neha
JAMMU, Dec 7: Gone are those days when the BJP used to dominate the political scene of Jammu Pradesh. Notwithstanding the fact that the BJP never enjoyed power in Jammu & Kashmir for obvious reasons, including the state’s peculiar demographic character, the party used to be a force to reckon with, particularly between 1996 and 2008. Between 1996 and 2004, Jammu Pradesh was represented in the Lok Sabha by the BJP. The party had won the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat three thrice in a row and the victory margin used to be quite impressive. The party won the Jammu-Poonch-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat twice in a row and the victory margin again was rather impressive. The fact of the matter is that the BJP used to lead in more than 27 assembly segments. Even in 2008, the party had performed reasonably well in the assembly elections. It had won 11 seats and emerged as a number two party in several constituencies. The party would have won a minimum of 22 seats, had it fielded right candidates.
The BJP leadership, instead of learning lessons from the mistakes it had committed in 2008, involved itself in petty politicking, with almost all the top leaders puling each other’s legs, and even hobnobbing with the pro-autonomy NC bosses, especially Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, for petty gains. The leadership lost its credibility in 2009, when some of the BJP legislators cross-voted to help the NC candidates in the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha elections. People of the Pradesh cutting across party lines as well as the BJP supporters and sympathizers mocked the BJP leadership and dismissed the party as a party of “unscrupulous leaders”, “vested interests”, and “irresponsible” people. People had then expected that the BJP leadership would change itself and play the role of an effective and responsible opposition and defend and promote further the legitimate cause of the people of Jammu Pradesh, its core constituency, but it was not to be. Instead, as many as seven BJP MLAs crossed voted in April 2011. They voted against their own party candidate and ensured the victory of the NC and Congress candidates in the Legislative Council elections. The cross-voting led to the expulsions of those who had allegedly violated the party whip and cross-voted. The party stands doomed since then. The leadership has failed to stem the rot, inspire its cadres, establish contact with the people and provide the leadership the people needed the most considering the “pernicious” influence of the policies the NC-Congress coalition government devised and implemented, including the policies aimed at further harming the general political and economic rights and interests of the people of Jammu Pradesh as well as paramount national interest in the state.
The poll results clearly show that the BJP leadership failed to target and influence even the identified voters (panchs and sarpanchs). The fact that both the PDP candidates emerged as number two after the coalition candidates should leave none in any doubt that the BJP has become a spent force in Jammu Pradesh. If the party is to restore the ground it lost over the last four years or so and win over the people’s trust, it has to retrospect and work very hard. The Panthers Party also needs to retrospect, notwithstanding the fact that it retains control over the constituencies it at present represents in the assembly. For, its performance has also been far from satisfactory. The short point is that both the BJP and the Panthers Party have to identify themselves with the people of Jammu Pradesh and their aspirations. There is no other alternative available to them.
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