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| Congress in dilemma as workers refuse to vote for alliance candidates | | | Mustansir
SRINAGAR, Apr 12: Notwithstanding, the pre-poll alliance of NC-Congress for the 16th Lok Sabha elections in the state, the alliance still faces tough challenge considering the dissatisfaction of the Congress workers with the coalition and the resentment against the Omar led Government on ground, which some of the Congress leaders fear might erode their chances of winning.
Former Chief Minister and Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad has also expressed reservations about taking the alliance to forthcoming Assembly polls. He has hinted at restricting the arrangement to Lok Sabha polls only.
Azad, it is believed, does not want his party to be restricted to the role of king maker alone and then be a bystander to let others reap the harvest of power. This has been a concern of party cadres too.
Congress workers have been complaining of being neglected by Omar Abdullah led Government and have on various occasions criticized the high command over entering into a coalition with NC.
Azad's statement has shaken the NC camp. In the Dooru and Kokernaag segments of the Anantnag-Pulwama Parliamentary constituency, the agitated Congress workers are likely to ignore the coalition candidate. This drastically improves the chances of PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, from the constituency. The fact that the vote share of the PDP and BJP have increased significantly is also having a detrimental effect on the NC-Congress alliance in the state. The increase in the vote-share of BJP and PDP is also believed to be behind the initial disinclination of the Azad towards contesting the elections from the state.
Meanwhile, the recent statements of the senior Congress leaders Saif-ud-Din Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad have been a cause of concern for the NC leaders, who in case of breakdown of alliance will be left to face the anti-incumbency factor alone in the state Assembly elections.
The statement has come at a time, when both parties are campaigning jointly and their leadership exhibiting unity and full support for each other, is seen to have come in the backdrop of pleasing the party workers, who were not happy over the outcome of coalition with NC.
Conceding the rift, state Congress chief Saif-ud-Din Soz had recently come on record, saying that even though party workers may not be happy with the pre-poll alliance with NC but their reservations will not have a bad effect over its (alliance) performance in the polls.
Statistics reveal that both NC and Congress lost its vote share in last Assembly elections. The real gainers were the PDP and the BJP.
During last Assembly elections held in 2008, National Conference had secured 25 per cent of the votes polled as compared to 28 per cent it got in 2002. BJP had received a nine per cent boost in vote share in the Jammu region.
The Congress went down from 24.5 per cent in 2002 to barely 20 per cent this time, with a huge vote bank loss in the Kashmir valley. The PDP increased its vote share by seven per cent, most of it in the Kashmir valley. PDP had got 9.28 per cent votes in 2002 Assembly elections.
In 2009, the NC had won three seats (in Baramulla, Anantnag and Srinagar) whereas Congress had won two seats (in Udhampur and Jammu) and independent had won 1 seat in Ladakh. Contesting Parliament elections right from 1967, NC candidates made to the Parliament for 22 times. This time according to political observers, every NC candidate has to face a popular PDP leader.
Sitting MP Dr Mehboob Beigh of the NC is challenged by PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, while former Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Beigh is taking on Sharif-u-Din Shariq. A close contest is expected between Dr. Farooq Abdullah and former Finance Minister Tariq Hamid Qarra. |
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