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| Pro-Cong, pro-NC wave blowing in J&K, says Azad | | Election Scene | | Rustam
jammu, Mar 18: Senior Congress leader and Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad asserted the other day while addressing a public meeting in Rajouri district that a strong pro-Congress and pro-National Conference (NC) wave is sweeping the state and that the coalition would win all the six Lok Sabha seats. He is a leader of a political party and it's natural that he would make such claims. After all, he has to keep the morale of the otherwise demoralized Congress supporters and cadres high. Hence, what he said should be viewed in this context.
Is a pro-Congress and pro-NC wind blowing in the state? Has the coalition done anything substantial during its more than five-year rule that could induce the general public turn towards its candidates? The existing political environment does not suggest that the Congress is standing on a strong wicket in Jammu province and the NC in Kashmir region.
In Kashmir, the NC is fighting for its very survival with the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) forging ahead day by day by unleashing an expose-the-ruling coalition-misdeeds-no-holds-barred campaign and its anti-people and anti-democratic policies. That the NC is finding it difficult to meet the challenge posed by the PDP could be seen from what NC working president and J&K Chief Minister told his party Ministers and office-bearers, including Kashmir-based district presidents, last week that the party will give mandate in the Assembly elections only to those who would ensure the victory of all the three Lok Sabha candidates, including his own father and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah. It was perhaps for the first time that any NC leader put such a condition. It would be only proper to say that it would be a great victory if the NC could win even one seat in the Kashmir valley. The NC is not contesting election in Jammu province. As for Jammu province, things also appear quite difficult for the Congress party, which is fielding its candidates in both the Lok Sabha constituencies hoping that the party would repeat its 2004 and 2009 performance by winning both the seats. The Congress, like the NC, has no attractive ware to put in the election market for sale. It has lost most of its political ground by keeping a truck with the pro-autonomy NC, as also by not fulfilling any of the election promises, including its promise on regional council, delimitation, refugees from West Pakistan and equal treatment to Jammu. Azad was here for three days for campaigning. During his campaigning he talked more about the secularism versus communalism and Pakistan and its ISI instead about issues of governance or democratic and economic issues. He, like others who accompanied him, did not talk about the unemployment problem, underdevelopment, high food prices, inflation, corruption and so on. They simply sought votes in the name of fake secularism. In fact, they indulged in negative campaigning as they had no positive agenda. Besides, in Jammu province, the Congress is facing challenge from the upbeat BJP as well as the PDP. The Modi factor has electrified the whole election scene in Jammu province and Ladakh region. Similarly, the PDP has been campaigning in Jammu province and targeting both the NC and the Congress and in the process capturing the political space of the Congress. The BSP too is trying its luck in the province and it has its influence in a few pockets. The refugee leader Labha Ram Gandhi will also be in the fray. The fact is that the presence of the PDP, the BSP and Labha Ram in the election would mar the electoral prospects of the Congress party in Jammu province. That the Congress is not sure of its victory could be seen from the delay in the selection of its candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats. All in all, it can be said that the Congress, like the NC, is in a difficult situation. |
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