Rustam
JAMMU, May 18: That Union Health Minister and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will lose the election very badly was a foregone conclusion, but no one had imagined that he would perform only relatively better than the BJP in Kishtwar, Ramban and even Reasi district - all the newly-created districts. (Ghulam Nabi Azad government created 8 districts in 2007 and these include Ramban, Reasi, Kishtwar, and Samba in Jammu province and Ganderbal, Kulgam, Shopian and Bandipore in Kashmir province - a development that had annoyed the people of Jammu province and was described as pro-Kashmir). Reasi Kishtwar and Ramban districts are part of the Kathua-Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha constituency.
The figures released by the Election Commission of India show that Azad performed only marginally better in Kishtwar and Ramban assembly segments and emerged second in the Reasi Assembly constituency. He did not get 50 per cent of the votes polled in any of these three constituencies. In Kishtwar, out of 49,055 votes polled, he got 45.83 per cent (22,484) of the total votes polled. As for the BJP, it got 38.17 per cent (18,726) votes. Similarly, in the Ramban assembly constituency, Azad got less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled. He got 45.76 per cent (25,786) votes out of a total of 56,344 votes polled. As for the BJP, it got 41.11 per cent (23,164) votes. The story in the Reasi assembly constituency was all the more disappointing in the sense that he got just 40.24 per cent votes (34,262) out of a total of 85,144 votes polled. The BJP got 10 per cent more votes; it got 50.67 per cent (43,143) votes. Not only this. Azad did not lead in any of the eight assembly constituencies of Kathua and Udhampur districts. It was the BJP which performed exceedingly well in these constituencies.
The only assembly segments which voted overwhelmingly in favour of Azad included Inderwal, Doda, Bhaderwah, Banihal, Gool-Arnas and Gulabgarh. All these are Muslim-dominated constituencies. He got lead of 28,155, 17,738, 23,186, 27,324, 20,184 and 29,668 votes, respectively.
What does all this show? It shows that Azad lost the election for two main reasons - his unpopularity and Narendra Modi wave - a wave that swept the nation. The third factor that worked against Azad was his negative role that culminated in the Amarnath land row in 2008 and his communal approach towards the issues facing the nation in Jammu & Kashmir and his patently Valley-centric approach. Yet another factor that turned out to be a waterloo for him was the alliance of the Congress with the pro-autonomy, separatist-friendly and rabidly anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh NC. |
