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| Fearing ignominious defeat, Congress toes NC line | | Pre-poll alliance | | Rustam
JAMMU, Feb 23: The drama is over. The Congress has finally fallen in line and endorsed the NC's proposal for a pre-poll alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It was expected that it would happen sooner than later. In fact, the Congress had no other option but to endorse the decision of the NC, which fielded three candidates, including party president Farooq Abdullah, for all the three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir Valley months ago without taking the local Congress leadership into confidence as it was convinced that it would carry the day and dictate its terms to the weak high command. The local Congress leadership had no other option but to endorse the NC's decision because the Congress high command comprising Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi maintains very good relations with the Abdullahs, notwithstanding the fact that the Abdullahs never missed any opportunity to attack the Congress. Mustafa Kamaal had even taken on Rahul Gandhi and told him not to interfere in the affairs of the state.
It's true that a number of local Congress leaders, especially those from Kashmir Valley, had approached the high command in Delhi and reportedly requested it not to forge a pre-poll alliance with the NC on the ground that such an arrangement will harm the party's interest in Kashmir, especially in South Kashmir where the Congress has its some support-base intact. They had also reportedly told the high command that the NC always promoted its own interests at the cost of the Congress and that if the Congress was to emerge as a strong force in the Valley, the high command had to ensure that the Congress contested election to one of the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir. It is obvious that the high command rejected their well-meaning suggestion to appease and please the Abdullahs.
It would not be an exaggeration if one may says so that some Jammu-based Congress leaders, especially the sitting MPs, must have also played their role to scuttle the move of their Kashmiri counterparts. For, they knew that the Congress would suffer an ignominious defeat at the hands of the BJP in case there was no pre-poll alliance with the NC. One of the MPs belongs to the Soz camp and the other to the Azad camp. Indeed, they have succeeded in their game plan.
A media report on pre-poll alliance quoting sources on Sunday said: "Leaders of Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu were heard separately by Azad, Soz and Haq. The party leaders put forth their views on as to whether the Congress should enter into a pre-poll alliance with NC in the upcoming elections. A crucial meeting of State unit of Congress in Jammu on Saturday had evolved a consensus that the party would forge a pre-poll alliance with National Conference in the Lok Sabha elections slated for March-April this year. Any alliance regarding Assembly polls, however, is subject to the condition of equal distribution of portfolios and sharing of Chief Minister's post on rotation basis. The decision in this regard was arrived at in presence of Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, AICC Secretary and J&K Affairs In-charge Moin-ul-Haq and State Congress Chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz in the Parliamentary Panel meeting of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) held in a Guest House in Jammu. Haq attended the meet as a special
invitee"Congress would make it clear that pre-poll alliance for Assembly polls would be formed only if NC agrees to share the Chief Ministers post on rotational basis".
It is important to note that the Congress and the NC had also forced a pre-poll alliance in 2009. The Congress had contested the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Ladakh and the NC in Kashmir. The coalition had won all the five seats in Jammu province and Kashmir. The Ladakh seat was won by an Independent candidate, who was, and is, close to the NC high command. He had defeated the Congress candidate and his defeat had created bad blood between the Congress and the NC. It will be seen if the pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the NC this time would help them turn tables on the PDP in Kashmir and the BJP in Jammu. |
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