Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 19: After forcing the PDP to boycott the Assembly proceedings early this year, the NC led coalition Government is trying its best to keep the party off Kishtwar. The PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti's entry into the troubled town was barred but at the eleventh hour an invitation was sent to her to attend the all party meet chaired by the Chief Minister. Mehbooba could not attend the meeting as she could not board a flight.
PDP came third in the last Assembly elections and it has strong presence in the Kishtwar. The party had scored about 10,000 votes, much ahead of Cong and close to BJP, which came second.
Party has eaten into the traditional vote of NC, like in other places, and this is worrying NC.
"PDP is a principal opposition party with base in all the three regions. It's base is growing . NC is playing petty vote bank politics and in the process undermining democratic institutions. But in the process its weakness and shallowness is getting exposed," said a senior PDP leader.
The nervousness of NC, stems from the fact, that with the polarization is place in Kishtwar, it think it will loose the Hindu votes.
It's for this reason that NC is now blaming BJP to consolidate the Muslim vote bank, and it's for this reason that PDP has said that NC is playing vote bank politics.
With minority vote, slipping out of NC and PDP having base in both the communities, NC is now trying to corner PDP in scheme of votes.
The NC has suffered a massive blow in the erstwhile Doda district because of the communal clashes. There is perception in this district that NC has engineered these clashes and it gets substantiated with the fact that district administration was not on the ground when clashes started.
Now a section of people also demanding removal of DIG and DySP in Kishtwar, the NC is feeling the heat and it's playing politics. |
