news details |
|
|
| Even as Congress says no to pre-poll alliance, NC keeps option open | | Crumbling coalition | | Neha
Jammu, Sept 3: The NC, which has lost its sheen and appeal across the state, including its strongholds like Kashmir and Kargil where it just lost elections to the Congress, is so desperate for a pre-poll alliance that its working president and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday stated that the option of pre-poll alliance with the Congress is still open. He expressed this view despite he fact that the bulk of JKPCC and members of its executive committee had on August 31 overruled the possibility of any such alliance on the ground that any pre-poll alliance with the NC would not be in the interest of the Congress party. The upshot of the discussion that took place in the day-long Congress convention was that the NC had been harming the Congress interests by pursing a policy that didn't suit the Congress either in Jammu province or Ladakh region. What transpired during the convention was widely reported.
Actually, what transpired during the convention had rattled the NC leadership, but leaders like Omar Abdullah put up a brave face saying things had not reached a breaking point and that all was well with the coalition. There was no rift in the ruling coalition was his refrain. "There is no tension at all. I don't know what views have been expressed by the Congress leaders on the alliance (in the Congress convention held at Jammu). The NC has not finalized its stand on the alliance. But yes, there are many people in our party who want the NC to go separately in the 2014 Assembly elections," he told reporters on the margins of a function at Raj Bhawan in Srinagar. At the same time, he said that "final decision on post or pre-poll alliance with the Congress would be taken by NC president Farooq Abdullah". ""Farooq Sahib is the ultimate authority to decide whether we should enter into an alliance with the Congress or not. Whatever decision he would take, we will abide by that," he, in fact, said, while responding to media queries.
It bears recalling that last October Omar Abdullah had advocated the need to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. He had virtually said that the NC would face a challenge from the PDP in the next Assembly elections and suggested that if the PDP was to kept away from the corridors of power, the NC needed to contest the Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress party. While his uncle and party additional general secretary had ridiculed and rejected his suggestion saying that it was for the party to take a decision on the issue and that whatever Omar Abdullah said was his personal view, Farooq Abdullah had endorsed his suggestion. In fact, the working committee of the NC in its meeting held in Jammu adopted his suggestion.
There are reasons to believe that both president and working president of the NC would try their level best to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. And, if the mood of the local Congress leadership and workers is any indication, then it can be said that the NC leadership would fail to rope in the Congress high command. The very fact that the Congress convention decided to contest election on all the 87 Assembly seats was a clear indication that the Congress will not oblige the NC. The Congress would forge post alliance either with the NC or with the PDP depending on the election results. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
