Early Times Report
Srinagar, Dec 5: Claiming to secure absolute majority and being under no compulsion to enter into an electoral tie-up with any political party until the other day, Congress party in Jammu and Kashmir is still not coming out the shock it suffered due to the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's first public rally in Jammu on December 1. There has been no Congress rally since last Sunday.
Barring a comment extorted from him by some mediapersons, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Prof Saifuddin Soz has thought it prudent to remain tightlipped. He has a reason: None of the party's ministers in it's real bastion of Jammu has gone proactive to "humble" Modi with a bigger rally. Insiders say that none of the Congress leaders had expected even 10,000 people to turn up at the BJP show. Over 100,000 obviously wouldn't have been in their wildest dreams.
With none in his coalition ally trying to find gaps in the Maulana Azad Stadium rally, Chief Minister and National Conference's Acting President Omar Abdullah has chosen to be "more loyal than the king" to 10-Janth in New Delhi. First, he used a photograph, clicked one hour before Modi's arrival, to nullify reports in media, particularly the social media, that over 50,000 Jammuites had attended the rally. Then, he made a point that more than 50,000 people could be accommodated by a stadium which had total capacity of 40,000. The BJP didn't bother even to tell the NC chief that the space he was counting was without the spacious playing field created for watching 22 people's game. For a rare event indeed, over 60,000 men, women and children had occupied the space of the 22 players. Add them to those of more than 25,000 in the pavilions, your choice.
The CM didn't budge on the 45,000 figure shared with him by a "Jammu expert". He didn't entertain even the 53,000 communicated to him by the CID. Hardliner separatist politician Syed Ali Shah Geelani was at the same time holding a massive rally in Kulgam.
Omar Abdullah nonetheless deserves credit for realizing the need of disputing the Modi rally figures with a big jalsa of his own NC. Grandfather Sheikh Abdullah's birth anniversary came in handy.
According to insiders, entire government machinery and the NC rank and file was activated to ensure that no less than 45,000 people attend the rally at Hazratbal. It was a little hard to achieve the target as most of the NC followers and sympathizers have now forgotten to flock to Sheikh's mausoleum for a Fatihakhwani. The last of the NC's large gatherings, either on his death anniversary on September 8 or his birth anniversary on December 5 at Hazratbal, had been witnessed over a decade ago.
Given the sub-zero temperature by the night and a cold wave, ahead of Chilla-e-Kalaan, it must be heartening for the NC top brass to pull a crowd of 10,000 people. In his desperate attempts to beat Modi, Omar Abdullah needs to try it again and again until he succeeds in mobilizing a crowd of 45,000. May be he gets 11,000 next time and 45,000 one day. Then indeed his tweets on the size of Modi's and Geelani's rallies could carry some weight. For now, he and his NC seem to end their slumber. |
