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| Will Cong form next Government in J&K? | | Azad's day dreaming | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Sept 18: Union Health Minister and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had on Tuesday asserted that the Congress party is very strong in all the three regions of the state and that the party will work hard to form the next government. He also kept the option of the Congress joining either the National Conference (NC) or the People's Democratic Party (PDP). "The Congress is the only party, which had strong base in all regions of the state and people needed to give a decisive mandate to help it to form the Government…However, in case the polls deliver a fractured verdict, the Congress will keep its options open and take help of either of the two regional parties ", he said while addressing a gathering of party workers at Leh Polo Ground. By the two regional parties Azad simply meant the NC and the PDP and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP).
As senior Congress leader Azad had every political right to speak high of the party with which his association is very old. Hence, it was only natural when he made assertions like the Congress is very strong across the state and that it will form the next government on its own or in alliance either with the NC or the PDP. This is also the stand of the JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz. But the question to be asked is: Will the Congress win the required number of seats to form the next government on its own? The answer cannot be in the affirmative. If one goes by the situation as it prevails today across the state, then the answer has to be no. The Congress might win a couple of seats out of 4 in Ladakh and 2 to 4 out of 46 in Kashmir. In other words, the Congress would not win more than half a dozen seats out of 50 into which Kashmir province is divided and this should explain everything.
The Congress had some support-base in Jammu province, but the local Congress leadership in general and Congress ministers from Jammu province in particular systematically eroded the party's support-base by not taking up the genuine causes of the discriminated against people of this neglected and badly let down region or by becoming a party to the anti-Jammu decisions taken by the Kashmir-led successive governments in the state. The Congress ministers from Jammu never behaved like ministers for the entire state; they functioned, and continue to function, as constituency ministers - a fact that was admitted by the AICC general secretary and in-charge Jammu & Kashmir Congress Ambika Soni on August 31 during the party convention held in Jammu. The Congress had never ever won many seats in Jammu province, which returns to the assembly 37 members. For example, its tally ranged between 15 and 13 between 2002 and 2008 and this despite the fact that Azad was virtually the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress party. In fact, in 2002, the Congress had declared that a vote for it would mean the office of Chief Minister to Jammu. It had made several other promises to garner votes in Jammu province. Some other promises included appointment of delimitation commission, establishment of development board and end to discriminatory policies. Despite these Jammu-specific commitments, the people of Jammu province returned to the assembly only 15 members, five from the erstwhile Doda district alone.
The Congress leadership needs to appreciate the ground realities in the state. The task of the Congress is not really easy. In fact, the task is very difficult. Its task has become all the more difficult in Jammu province with the anointment of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election. |
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