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| Panthers Party blaming ruling coalition for its poor performance | | Causes Of Defeat | | Neha
JAMMU, Dec 9: Legislative Council elections for the four reserved seats were out on December 6, with the ruling coalition winning all the seats. Ever since then, the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) leadership, like the rejected BJP, has been accusing the National Conference (NC) and the Congress party, which have been ruling the state since January 2009, of violating model code of conduct, misusing official machinery and rigging the elections and asserting day in and day out that had the ruling coalition not resorted to unfair means, it would have performed much better. One cannot repudiate outright the charges leveled by the JKNPP leadership, as both the NC and the Congress are too well-known for taking recourse to all conceivable means to manipulate election results. In fact, the electoral history of Jammu & Kashmir is one of subversion of democratic processes. It would be only appropriate to say that one of the most important reasons which led to the emergence of secessionist and violent movement in Kashmir in the late 1980s was the wholesale rigging of the 1987 Assembly elections. Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen Syed Salah-ud-Din is the by-product of the 1987 farcical electoral exercise and the nation has been paying through its nose ever since then.
However, it would be unfair to say that the ruling coalition won the election using only unfair means. Had the ruling coalition rigged the elections on a massive scale, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) candidates would not have performed exceedingly well in the Kashmir valley. Both the PDP candidates lost the election by a margin of little more than 2000 votes. The PDP performed well despite the fact that the NC and Congress contested the election jointly. The PDP did lose the election, but it demonstrated its strength. There might have been misuse of official machinery here and there.
Similarly, had the ruling coalition rigged the election and misused the official machinery to the extent the JKNPP leadership has been suggesting, its candidates would not have secured the number of votes in the three constituencies the party represents in the Assembly. The JKNPP, which relegated the BJP to the fourth place in J-1 seat, scored an impressive victory of its lightweight candidates in all three Assembly constituencies -- Ramnagar, Udhampur and Samba. In Ramnagar, which is represented by Harshdev Singh, the JKNPP candidates got 114 and 115 votes, as against 61 the Congress got and 57 the NC candidate got. In Udhampur, which is represented in the Assembly by Balwant Singh Mankotia, the JKNPP candidates got 187 and 170 votes as compared to 114 of the Congress candidate and 97 of the NC candidate. In Samba constituency, which is represented by Yash Paul Kundal, the JKNPP candidates polled 142 and 136 votes, as against 90 the Congress candidate secured and 80 the NC candidate got.
The JKNPP performed well in these constituencies because it had its cadres and supporters at the grassroots level. Besides, the JKNPP legislators always remained active in their respective constituencies. That was the reason the party performed well. Had the JKNPP leadership tried to expand its constituency beyong Ramnagar, Udhampur and Samba and made a serious attempt at implementing its agendas of 2011 and 2012, the story today would have been somewhat different. It would be better if the JKNPP leadership realizes its mistakes and conduct itself in a manner that induces people to strengthen this party in the region. The people of Jammu Pradesh do need a party that is Pradesh-centric and not two/three constituencies-centric.
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