Rustam
JAMMU, May 22: Much has been written and said about the nature of people's mandate, as also about the 2014 election outcome in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The PDP has defeated the NC in the Kashmir Valley and won all the three Lok Sabha seats, it has been repeatedly said and written about.
The BJP has defeated the Congress-NC coalition candidates in Jammu and Ladakh and won all the three Lok Sabha seats with an impressive margin, it has also been umpteen written and said during the past six days. Political observers and commentators would write more on this in the coming days, as the Congress and the NC suffered the most humiliating defeat in the sense that the coalition could not even open its account in Jammu & Kashmir - a state which for most time was ruled by the NC and the Congress. It was only between November 5, 2002 and November 4, 2005 that PDP's leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed ruled the state. Significantly, the Congress was a part of the PDP-led coalition government as well. What has escaped the attention of commentators and political observers is the virtual annihilation of all the political parties and political groups in Jammu province. It was not only the coalition's candidates - Ghulam Nabi Azad and Madan Lal Sharma -- who suffered the worst ever defeats. The story of other political parties which also tested the political waters in Jammu province was more pathetic. They were rejected outright by the Jammu electorate. So much so, almost all the non-BJP candidates, barring the Congress candidates, lost their security deposit. Some of the parties which suffered humiliating defeat and forfeited security deposit included the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party, the Samajwadi Party and similar other outfits. Even the PDP performed very poorly. The voting pattern in Jammu province was like the rest of India's, barring Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where regional parties triumphed. In other words, the Jammu electorate rejected with contempt all the political parties which contested the election on divisive agenda and caste and community lines. The message of the Jammu electorate was loud and clear: We will vote for mainstream politics was the message of the Jammu electorate. Will the leadership of all the parties which suffered ignominious defeats learn lesson and refashion their whole approach? It's a difficult question to answer. |
