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| Congress-NC pre-poll alliance on expected lines | | | It was expected that the Congress High Com-
mand will favour a pre-poll alliance with the
Congress in Jammu and Kashmir notwithstanding reservation on the part of leaders of the state unit of the Congress.Majority of senior Congress leaders in Jammu and Kashmir had supported the idea of going alone in the Lok Sabha poll battle.But the Congress high command has been consistent on its stand of keeping the alliance in tact. In fact the state unit of the Congress had been under pressure to snap ties with the National Conference but top AICC leaders, especially Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, have been opposed to any change in the political arrangement that was hammered out in 2008 when the two parties decided to share power. Both Sonia Gandhi and her son,Rahul Gandhi, have been so much in favour of running a coalition Government in alliance with the National Conference that they conceded Omar Abdullah's demand that he should be allowed to remain as Chief Minister for the full term of six years.And when the Congress forged an alliance with the PDP in 2002 anf formed the Government it did not accept Mufti Mohd.Sayeed's plea for allowing him to head the Government for six year.Instead the two parties decided in favour of rotating the Chief Minister and for first three years Mufti Sayeed headed the Government and for the remaining period Ghulam Nabi Azad was installed as the Chief Minister.
Right from 2002 the Congress has emerged as the Government maker in the event of previous elections having thrown up a hung Assembly.And as such the Congress wanted the issue of alliance to be kept open as it was interested in fielding its candidate from one of the three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir valley. However,the Congress high command has approved fighting the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir with its alliance partner, National Conference.. While the NC would be fielding its candidates from all three Lok Sabha constituencies in the Kashmir valley, the Congress would contest from two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh.The decision, which has categorically overruled the State Congress's stand over the pre-poll issue, was arrived at during a high-level meeting in New Delhi chaired by the Congress president Sonia Gandhi. It was also attended by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh besides top Congress leaders including the Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Defence Minister AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Makhan Lal Fotedar, Congress's JK Affairs In-charge Ambika Soni and JK PCC chief Prof Saifudin Soz.
Under the informal decision the National Conference will support the Congress candidates from Jammu,Udhampur and Ladakh constituencies and the Congress is to back the NC candidates in Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag constituencies.Well this pre-poll alliance can be termed as a sort of Congress plan to distance itself from the PDP.But whether the pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the NC is to survive during the next Assembly election,due towards the end of 2014,will depend on the success of the Congress in Jammu and Ladakh regions.Well the state unit of the Congress is unhappy over the decision of the high command to leave all the three seats in the Kashmir valley for the NC.But judging from the political stature of the candidates from NC and the PDP one can safely say that not a single Lok Sabha constituency in the valley could have been a safe segment for the Congress.Initially the NC was prepared to support the Congress from Anantnag constituency but as PDP candidate Mehbooba Mufti is a very strong candidate from this constituency.Reports indicate that by forging a pre-poll alliance with NC during the ensuing Lok Sabha election the Congress has not closed the channels of alliance with the PDP.If the situation demanded the Congress could share power with the PDP if the next Assembly poll threw up a hung Assembly with the PDP emerging as the single largest party in the Assembly. Politcal pundits say that the Congress should keep the alliance issue open during the ensuing Assembly poll and the issue could be resolved after the Assembly poll results were out.In that case the Congress will have the liberty for fielding its candidates from various Assembly segments in the Valley.
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