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| Azad, Soz unlikely to improve poll prospects of Cong | | Politics of bluff | | Neha
JAMMU, Oct 18: Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and JKPCC chief Saif-ud-Din Soz, who otherwise do not see eye to eye with each other, have started feeling the pinch. Knowing it fully well that the Congress has little or no chance in the upcoming Assembly elections they have started operating from one platform. Their whole approach is guided by the general belief in the state that the Congress might not even survive after the Assembly elections, as it, like the NC, has lost the people's confidence across the state.
The Congress think-tanks have come to believe that the victory of the PDP in Kashmir and of BJP in Jammu and Ladakh has "upset the Congress's applecart and if the Congress is to win a few seats or repeat its 2008 performance and win 17 seats, they will have to work very hard". But the political environment as it prevails across the state is not at all inspiring for the Congress. The main problem of the Congress in Jammu & Kashmir is that it doesn't have a single leader who could motivate the electorate to vote for it.
There was a time when Azad carried some conviction with people in certain areas of Jammu province and could enable the Congress to win 13 to 15 seats out of 37, but after his own humiliating defeat, he has lost his own face. As for Soz, he never was a vote-catcher, not even in Kashmir from which he hails. In Kashmir, the PDP has created for itself a strong constituency and the manner in which the ruling coalition behaved last month in the Valley has further strengthened the position of the PDP. The general view in Kashmir is that both the NC and the Congress are in deep trouble and it would be considered a great performance if they shared between them even 15 seats out of 46. Such is the level of unpopularity of the NC and the Congress in the Valley. In Jammu province, the position for the ruling coalition is no different.
The NC was never popular in this province because of its ideology, insistence on autonomy, negative attitude towards the army and its essentially Valley-centric approach.
The Congress did from time to time win around a dozen seats in Jammu, but things have completely changed for it.
The reason is that the people of Jammu province consider the Congress a "party of bluffers" and a party that "has always ditched them". Their grievance against the Congress is genuine.
After all, the Congress in 2002 and 2008 won 15 and 13 seats, respectively, and became part of the government, but it did not fulfill any of the promises it had made.
The plight of the Congress in Ladakh is also similar. The reason is that the Congress under pressure from the Kashmiri leadership changed its stand on UT status for Ladakh and it happened when the election process in full swing. The case in point is the Lok Sabha election. All in all, it can be said that the Congress is in for a major shock and that it would be contesting the toughest-ever election in Jammu & Kashmir as and when held. Political pundits do not make a mistake when they predict a doom for the Congress party. |
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