Neha
JAMMU, June 19: Supporters of former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of the BJP in the just-held Parliamentary election, have unleashed a movement to make the Congress high command comprising Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi to declare him as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2014 Assembly elections. They believe that such a political move would go a long way in helping the party to revive and survive and emerge victorious. This is not a well-founded belief and this can be seen from the fact that the Congress contested the Assembly elections in 2002 and 2008 under the leadership of Azad, but failed to score an impressive victory in any of the elections.
In 2002, the Congress had won only 20 seats - 15 in Jammu, 5 in Kashmir and none in Ladakh. In other words, the Congress could win a little over 20 per seats in the 87-member House. In 2008, its tally was just 17 - 13 in Jammu, 3 in Kashmir and one in Ladakh. The Congress performed very poorly in 2008 and this, notwithstanding the fact that Azad was the party's Chief Ministerial candidate for all practical purposes. Of course, the Congress performed very well in the erstwhile Doda district that returns 6 members to the Assembly. The Congress had won 5 out of 6 seats. Azad, who hails from Doda, had also won with an impressive margin.
The political situation in Jammu and Kashmir and in the rest of the country has undergone a radical change. The Congress has suffered a massive defeat across the country. It could win only 44 seats in the 543-member House. Its plight can be gauged from the fact that the Congress doesn't even hold the office of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. It's just a marginal outfit. In Jammu and Kashmir, its plight is no different. It is just the B-team of the NC, which, too, has become irrelevant in the state politics after its massive defeat in the Lok Sabha election. The fact of the matter is that the Congress has to reckon with the victorious PDP in Kashmir and BJP in Jammu province and Ladakh region and it has no attractive political wares to put in the election market to sell. But more than that, the people across the state have come to believe, and very rightly, that game of the Congress and the NC is up in the state. In other words, they have come to believe that the Abdullahs cannot revive the NC and the Azads cannot Congress. The reasons are not far to seek. |
