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| Congress dashes Omar's hopes ? | | NC's Mission Bounce Back | | Rustam
JAMMU, June 23 : Last week, the defeated National Conference (NC) leadership decided to launch what it called "mission bounce back". In fact, four developments took place that day in a meeting of the party, held at Srinagar. One, it was decided that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who also happens to be the working president of the party, will not contest from Ganderbal assembly constituency, which he at present represents, and contest from some "safer" constituency. Hazratbal and Sonawar are the constituencies the NC leadership considers safe for Omar Abdullah. The decision of the party to shift
Omar to a safer constituency should explain everything and establish that the NC is a spent force in Ganderbal, once considered a pocket borough of the Abdullah family. Two, it was decided not to field party president and former Union Minister farooq Abdullah, who in May suffered the first ever defeat in his long political career, in any of the Kashmir assembly constituencies.
This was also a significant decision that established that Farooq Abdullah has little or no say in the party or that the party patriarch has lost his confidence. What an irony!
Three, it was decided to launch "mission bounce back". Those who spoke in the meeting in which defeated MP Mehboob Beg was also shown his place for his adverse remarks against Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather asserted that the party had suffered reverses in the past and also bounced back. They were partly right and partly wrong. They were wrong because it was the Congress that handed over the state power on a platter to Sheikh Abdullah in 1947 and 1977, to Farooq Abdullah in 1987 and to Omar Abdullah in January 2009. There were right to the extent that it was only in 1977, 1984, 1987 and 1996 that the NC actually win the assembly elections using all conceivable means. Had the Congress not promoted the NC it would not have been in power for most of the period.
Four, certain elements in the meeting that day expressed themselves against the idea of pre-poll alliance with the Congress, despite the fact that Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah had in the past favoured pre-poll alliance with the Congress. Omar Abdullah had even said that if the NC was to keep the PDP away from power, it had no other alternative but to forge a pre-poll alliance with the Congress. Farooq\ Abdullah had endorsed his son's suggestion but his uncle and party additional general secretary Mustafa Kamal had publicly opposed the suggestion saying what Omar said was not the party's view.
Interestingly, there were, and are, elements in the Congress who also opposed, and continue to oppose, pre-poll alliance with the NC. They were, and are, for keeping the option open for post-poll alliance either with the NC or with the PDP depending on their performance and they have, it seems, finally emerged victorious. On Saturday, the Congress virtually dashed all the hopes of Omar Abdullah by announcing the names of certain party candidates for the upcoming election. It was also announced that all the sitting Congress MLAs will be repeated. The decision of the Congress has virtually sealed the fate of the NC. The reason is simple: The NC has little or no chance of winning even ten seats on its own and this became clear from the Lok Sabha election results. It is a different story that the poll prospects of the Congress in the elections are also not bright despite claims to the contrary.
It would be a victory of sorts if the Congress could win ten seats on its own. In any case, the decision of the Congress to go alone is a bad omen for the NC and great advantage BJP in Jammu and Ladakh and PDP in Kashmir Valley. |
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