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| Congress' apple-cart turns turtle in Jammu | | Will ministers take responsibility and resign? | | Neha
JAMMU, May 20: Will the Congress Ministers in Jammu follow in the footsteps of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who resigned on Sunday taking moral responsibility for the defeat of the JDU, and put in papers? Or will they imitate senior Congress leader and three-time Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gagoi, who has also decided to put in his papers saying he takes moral responsibility for the ignominious defeat of the Congress party in his state. The JDU won only two seats, as against its 2009 tally of 20 and the Congress won only three seats, as against its 2009 tally of 10 seats.
Even AICC president Sonia Gandhi and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday had offered to resign taking moral responsibility for the defeat of the Congress party across the nation. The Congress won only 44 seats. Its tally in 20009 was 206. In other words, the Congress lost as many as 162 seats. It was the Congress' worst ever defeat in its electoral history. It is a different story that the Congress Working Committee rejected the Sonia Gandhi's and Rahul Gandhi's offer of resignation.
As suggested, will the Congress ministers also take moral responsibility for the Congress's defeat in the constituencies they represent in the Assembly and put in their papers? The four assembly constituencies in Jammu province where the Congress candidates Madan Lal Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad miserably failed to garner votes are Gandhi Nagar, Akhnoor, Chhamb and Billawar. In Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituency, which is represented by Cabinet Minister Raman Bhalla, Sharma could get only 26,976 votes and the BJP candidate Jugal Kishore Sharma got 63,811 votes. In the Akhnoor assembly segment, which is represented in the Assembly by Cabinet Minister and the Congress's candidate and his own real brother Sham Lal Sharma, Madan Lal Sharma got 27,170 votes and the BJP candidate polled 38,403 votes. Similarly, in the Chamb segment of Deputy CM Tara Chand, the Congress got 20244 votes and the BJP 31251 votes.
The story of Billawar Assembly segment was no different. In Billawar, which is represented by Minister of State Manohar Lal Sharma, the Congress candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad got 18,076 votes and the BJP candidate Jitendra Singh 42,526 votes. These were not narrow margins; these were huge margins which suggested that the Congress had over the period lost its ground in these four and several other Assembly segments. The fact of the matter is that the Congress could lead only in six segments and the lead in most of them was not impressive.
That both the Congress candidate lost the election with a huge margin did indicate the extent to which the party has become unpopular in Jammu province. It's time for the senior Congress leaders and Congress ministers, who failed to deliver, to take a moral responsibility and act accordingly. |
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