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| BREAKING: Azad, Soz concede defeat?, Opt to stay out from poll fray! | | Congress on sticky wicket | | LA Polls
Fazal Khan
Srinagar, Aug 3: Two top Congress stalwarts, former Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prof Saifuddin Soz announcing their decision about they not contesting the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state has proved that Congress is on a "weak wicket" and has conceded defeat even before poll dates have been announced.
Both of them deciding to stay out of the poll fray indicates that Congress is yet to recover from the aftershock of the humiliating defeat faced by the party in the recently held Parliamentary polls. "Top leaders don't want to take any chances this time as they are finding it hard to locate the safe constituencies for themselves," said a Congress insider.
He said Azad was contemplating to contest the forthcoming Assembly polls from his home constituency Baderwah, which at present is represented by his cousin Mohammad Sharief Niaz. However, Niaz recently had announced that he won't vacate his seat for Azad. "I don't want party to make me a scapegoat again. Let others prove their loyalty and vacate their seat for Azad Sahib," Niaz had said earlier this month. It is in place to mention here that when Azad became the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in 2005, Niaz had vacated the Bhaderwah seat to pave way for Azad to contest the polls. Azad had won the bye-elections with a huge margin from Bhaderwah seat in 2006. Sources said that Niaz's refusal to vacate the seat this time has made Azad change his mind. "Congress leaders don't want to annoy their ground workers this time around to ensure the victory of their candidates from a few seats which the party represents in the Doda-Bhaderwah areas," they added. A senior Congress leader told Early Times that party is trying to learn from its past mistakes. "Party paid a heavy price for denying mandate to two time Member Parliament Chaudary Lal Singh from Doda-Udhampur seat."
He said that Azad's defeat in the Parliamentary elections from the Doda-Udhampur seat has put a question mark on Azad being the tallest Congress leader in Jammu and Kashmir. "Azad wants to play safe to ensure that if by any chance Congress plays a role in the government formation, he can stake his claim for the top post," the leader said.
A Congress insider revealed that the party high command has told the top leaders to shun their differences and avoid giving diktats to the ground workers. "If leaders don't mend their ways there is every possibility of Congress witnessing a rebellion," he said. "Had party allowed Lal Singh to contest the Parliamentary polls there was every possibility about him turning the tables on the BJP as he is a local man. Azad came from Delhi and jumped in the poll fray and people rejected him straightaway."
On the other hand the JKPCC chief Prof Saifuddin Soz, who till the recent past was dreaming about becoming the Chief Minister of the state, too has realized that he has no constituency in Kashmir from where he can contest.
The Kashmir based spokesman of the Bhartiya Janta Party Altaf Thakur while talking to Early Times said, "Both of them have realized that they cannot win the elections that is why they have announced to stay away from the process."
Thakur said, "Azad won from Bhaderwah seat only once in 2006 that too when he was in power. He is the only leader in India's history who first became the Chief Minister and then a MLA. Azad has no stature. It is just a myth which was broken by our candidate Dr Jitendra Singh in the recently held Lok Sabha polls."
The BJP spokesman said, "Azad and Soz know it very well that Modi wave is prevailing in JK and it is better for them to stay away from the poll process. They have conceded defeat even before the poll dates have been announced." |
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