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| Fear of BJP, PDP may result in pre-poll alliance between Cong and NC | | Congress in for more trouble | | Neha
JAMMU, July 7: Bulk of the NC leaders and cadres do not want any kind of truck with the Congress. It is too well known. They want the party leadership to eschew the idea of any pre-poll alliance with the Congress party. Similarly, bulk of the local Congress leadership and cadres do not want the party high command to enter into a pre-poll alliance with the NC, saying that such an alliance would not only benefit the NC in Jammu province at the cost of the Congress, but would also further annoy its already rather alienated constituencies in Jammu province and Ladakh region where the people appreciate only mainstream politics and feel that the Congress by aligning itself with the NC caused more harm to them.
But, at the same time, there are powerful elements in both the parties who want a pre-poll alliance between the coalition partners. Some of them include the sitting MLAs of both the parties, as also leaders like Omar Abdullah. Their argument is that pre-poll alliance between the two alone could help them win the upcoming Assembly election and that the BJP and the PDP would be benefited in case the NC and the Congress contest the Assembly elections separately. The division of the coalition votes would surely help the BJP in Jammu and PDP in Kashmir is the major political refrain of the votaries of pre-poll alliance.
It appears these elements have succeeded in persuading the Congress high command to give a serious thought to the issue before it is too late. That they have succeeded in their game plan could be seen from the fact that AICC president Sonia Gandhi has constituted a 6-member committee to be headed by former Defense Minister A.K. Antony. It will look into the whole issue taking into consideration the prevailing political environment in the state. The committee has also been charged with the responsibility of looking into demand in favour of or against pre-poll alliance between the Congress and the NC and giving a definite input to Sonia Gandhi. The members of the committee include Taj Mohi-ud-Din, Gulam Ahmad Mir and Peerzada Sayeed from Kashmir region, Madan Lal Sharma and his brother Sham Lal Sharma from Jammu and Ringzin Jora from Ladakh.
The committee was constituted after detailed deliberations between the Central Congress leadership and senior Congress leaders from the state, which took place in Delhi on Sunday. Interestingly, prior to the Congress leaders' meeting with Antony, AICC general secretary and in-charge Jammu and Kashmir Ambika Soni, former Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz held a separate meeting to discuss the party's poll strategy for the coming Assembly elections and informed Sonia Gandhi about the stand of Jammu and Kashmir Congress leaders and workers. They reportedly told Sonia Gandhi that there was a general view that the "party shouldn't go for pre-poll alliance with the NC".
This is one part of the story. The other part of the story is the pressure being exerted by Omar Abdullah on the Congress high command. Omar Abdullah and his father Farooq Abdullah would want the Congress high command to overrule the local Congress leadership's stand and order the State Congress leadership to go in for pre-poll alliance with the NC. The reasons behind Omar Abdullah's insistence on pre-poll alliance are obvious. It would help the NC win a few seats Kashmir, where the PDP has emerged very strong. The other is that such an alliance would help it retain its hold over some of the constituencies in Jammu province which it at present represents in the Assembly. The third reason is that a pre-poll alliance with the Congress could also improve its poll prospects in Kargil district. In other words, pre-poll alliance would help improve the electoral chances of the otherwise highly unpopular NC and at the cost of the Congress. The local Congress leadership knows it and, hence, its opposition to the idea of pre-poll alliance. But its problem is the Congress high command, which might go with Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah. After all, the Congress has umpteen times in the past stood solidly behind the Abdullah family. Indeed, the Congress is in for more trouble. |
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