| BJP, Cong, PDP all eyeing Brahmin vote bank on Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat | | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, Mar 22: Amid a keen contest between Congress, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the 'battle royale' for the Jammu-Poonch parliamentary constituency, going for poll on April 10, is presenting a unique picture to the voters as all the three major political parties are relying on Brahmin candidates to woo the voters.
The Jammu-Poonch parliamentary seat, which has the distinction of being the largest among the six Lok Sabha constituencies in J&K with as many as 17,63,579 voters, is currently being represented by senior Congress leader Madan Lal Sharma.
Madan Lal Sharma, who is a Brahmin, emerged victorious in 2009 and 2004 by inflicting defeats to the BJP candidates Lila Karan Sharma and Dr Nirmal Singh respectively.
Interestingly, this time around Madan Lal, is locking horns with two other Brahmin stalwarts representing BJP and PDP.
While the BJP has fielded its State President Jugal Kishore Sharma, the PDP has given mandate to its senior leader Yashpal Sharma to pose a challenge to Congress nominee Madan Lal.
The political observers are viewing the trend of putting up Brahmin candidates by all the three major political parties to the history of this seat as since 1996 it has predominantly seen the dominance of a Hindu and that too Brahmin candidate either from the Congress or BJP, who have represented the seat from time to time since1996 till 2009.
The only exception where a non-Hindu, non-Brahmin, non-Congress or non-BJP candidate romped home was in February 2002 Bye-Poll when National Conference candidate Chowdhary Talib Hussain won the seat after it got vacated due to the death of the then BJP MP Vishno Dutt Sharma.
Hussain polled 2,53,891 votes (34.87 percent of the total votes polled) while his nearest rival Dr Nirmal Singh of BJP got 1,98,402 votes (27.24 percent of total votes polled).
In that election, Madan Lal of Congress stood third by getting 1,86,124 votes (25.56 percent of the total votes polled).
In 1996 general elections, the Congress heavyweight Pt Mangat Ram Sharma won the seat by defeating veteran BJP leader Vishno Dutt Sharma with a margin of 46,733 votes.
However, in 1998 Lok Sabha polls, BJP's Vishno Dutt Sharma won the seat by defeating NC candidate Janak Raj Gupta with a huge margin of 1,27,901 votes. Vishno Dutt polled 3,36,472 votes (43.26 percent of votes) where as Gupta got 2,08571 votes (26.81 percent of votes). Congress candidate Pt Mangat Ram Sharma got third spot and polled 1,40, 832 votes (18.11 percent of votes).
The voters of Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat again reposed faith in Vishno Dutt Sharma of BJP in general elections of 1999 when they preferred him over NC candidate RS Chib and Congress nominee Madan Lal Sharma.
Vishno Dutt Sharma again got a huge chunk of votes in comparison to his rivals. He was polled 2,89,412 votes (43.46 percent), NC's Chib got only 1,47,393 votes (22.23 percent) while Congress remained distant third with only 1,26,356 votes (18.97 percent).
In 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Congress again won the Jammu-Poonch seat as it finally managed to gain the confidence of the voters after 8 long years and three elections.
The Congress candidate Madan Lal Sharma was able to defeat his BJP rival Dr Niraml Singh with a narrow margin of 17,568 votes. While Madan's vote tally was 3,19, 994 his opponent Dr Singh polled 3,02426 votes and NC's Surjit Singh Slathia stood third by getting 1,20397 votes.
In 2009 general elections, Madan Lal Sharma retained the seat and this time he got better of BJP's Lila Karan Sharma, who spearheaded Amaranth land row agitation in Jammu region in 2008.
Even though, Lila Karan Sharma overnight became a hero for Jammuites for his role in the Amarnath land agitation he failed to capitalize that at the hustings.
Madan Lal won the seat with a huge margin of 1,21,373 votes. He got 3,82,305 votes (45.33 percent) votes while Lila Karan Sharma polled 2,60,932 votes (30.94 percent). PDP's Tarlok Singh Bajwa, who stood third, was polled 93730 votes (11.11 percent).
Now, with three Brahmins candidates representing three mainstream parties are fighting each other it will be interesting to see who among them emerges as a winne |
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