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| Would Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar's gamble pay him or NC? | | |
Early Times Report
GANDERBAL, Aug 17: Finally after having fought the 2008 elections against the NC as a Congress candidate from this constituency, Sheikh Ishfaq Jabbar, the son of former Minister Sheikh Jabbar has decided to join the NC.
Interestingly, Ishfaq has been persuaded by NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani to join the NC so that the electoral prospects of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah improve during the 2014 assembly electionsfrom Ganderbal assembly constituency. Ishfaq had polled around 5000 votes during the 2008 elections and had those votes gone in favour of PDP candidate, Qazi Mohammad Afzal, Omar could have lost the 2008 elections as well to Qazi who had defeated him from Ganderbal in 2002 elections. Ishfaq, who was serving as sub-inspector in the State Police had resigned before fighting the 2008 elections. Last time also Ishfaq had been angered with the Congress leadership when he was not considered for the MLC's slot when the term of the Congress MLC from Ganderbal Ali Mohammad Bhat had ended. The Congress leadership had actually panicked after Ishfaq announced he would be parting ways with the Congress because the promise to accommodate him in the Legislative Council had not been fulfilled.
A senior Congress Minister had accepted that the State Congress President, Professor Saif-ud-Din Soz had sent him to Bhatindi where Ashfaq was putting up at the house his father-in-law Syed Akhoon, the NC leader from Srinagar.
Akhoon was the only NC leader who displayed the NC flag in Srinagar after all other leaders of the NC had run away from the Valley during early 1990s because of militant threats. The NC had punished Akhoon by denying him a mandate in 2008 because his son-in-law (Ishfaq) had stood in the elections against Omar in Ganderbal in 2008. The Congress party was this time also planning to field Ishfaq from Ganderbal but his decision to join the NC has surprised the Congress leadership in the State and also some in the high command in Delhi. Early this year Mohan Prakash who was then the Congress general secretary incharge J&K had gone to Ishfaq's home in Lar town of Ganderbal to send out a signal that the decision to field Ishfaq as the Congress candidate from Ganderbal in 2014 had the approval of the Congress high command. UPA chairperson and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi had given a personal audience to Ishfaq when he went to meet her in New Delhi last time.
Sources close to Ishfaq told ET that he has been promised a rehabilitation with some position equivalent in status to a Minister of state after 2014 elections. Ishfaq's father late Sheikh Jabbar who was killed by militants in his Lar home in early 1990s was pivotal in toppling the NC Government headed by Dr. Farooq Abdullah in 1984. All the senior NC leaders especially Dr. Farooq, NC general secretary Sheikh Nazir and other loyalists had sworn enmity against Sheikh Jabbar after he joined the G.M. Shah Government as a Cabinet Minister following a coup in the NC that deprived Dr. Farooq Abdullah of power.
How many miles Sheikh Ishfaq can go with the NC whose top leadership still remembers his father as the 'betrayer of 1984' is for him to decide. Whether the promise made to him gets fulfilled or not, the fact remains that the poaching on the Congress flock by the NC is definitely going to create further ill-will between the two ruling alliance partners in the State. Whether Ishfaq's joining the NC really improves Omar Abdullah's electoral fortunes or not, it is clear that Ishfaq's future as an upcoming Congress politician has suddenly come to an end. |
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