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| Did Congress workers engineered Azad's defeat in Doda? | | | Mustansir
Srinagar, May 18: Even as Narinder Modi is all set to form the new government at Centre following historic mandate, political analysts are still assessing as to what went wrong in Udhampur-Doda LS constituency that the senior Congress leader, Union Minister and former Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad had to eat a humble pie.
Of late certain revelations have come to the fore suggesting that Ghulam Nabi Azad who had done a lot for the development of erstwhile Doda district was himself responsible for complete and vertical polarization of voters in the region which finally lead to his defeat.
Reports coming in from Doda highlight that in its desperate attempt to woo the voters, Azad loyalists from the erstwhile Doda district made announcements from the mosques during the last three or four days of campaigning urging upon the Muslims of the region to vote for Azad which evidently led to vertical polarization to the extent that the family of a Member Legislative Council of a particular community voted for BJP. According to the close watchers it was only after this wrong tactical approach to woo the Muslim voters that went against Azad and which led to vertical polarization in Doda, Badherwah, Kishtwar and other assembly segments.
Figures also provide such a picture suggesting that barring a few thousand schedule cast voters, the Hindu vote completely went BJP way. The voting pattern of the erstwhile district too stands testimony that though the people irrespective of cast, creed, colour or religion are in agreement that Azad had done a lot for the development of the region but it was actually Azad himself who polarized the situation in the region. It was for the first time in the electoral history of erstwhile Doda district that the voting pattern was overwhelmingly on religious lines.
Eventhough in Udhampur, Kathua districts the Modi wave was really storming, eventhough there was a complete anti-National Conference Tsunami in Kashmir valley but in Doda district the electoral battle was transformed into a war of faith and belief by Congress workers.
Just days before the polling, analysts had predicted that people of Erstwhile Doda district will vote for development, which they have witnessed during Azad's tenure both as Chief Minister of the state and as Union Health Minister but events unfolded in such a way that a particular community was made (if not forced) to vote for BJP by non other than the congress workers.
No doubt Azad was actually facing his career's biggest challenge in the Udhampur constituency but he was still in contest as PDP had fielded a little known candidate from the constituency who could not even drew the attention of the people of his native village and the Muslim vote was supposed to go to Azad in anyway. What Azad was supposed to do was to consolidate the goodwill he was enjoying among the masses of the region irrespective of cast and religion but ill luck for him he could not do it and the result-his humiliating defeat. This was is in sharp contrast to the political affinities of people in the Chenab Valley where voters have looked at political developments in the Valley plus the geographical aloofness and difficulties of their own region to determine who they should vote to power.
Many analysts, however, argue that the constituency also stands polarized between Hindus and Muslims because of the communal riots in Kishtwar town last year. |
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