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| Now it is Gujjars versus Gujjars | | Congress, NC put their Gujjar stuff in field | | Early Times Reporter
Poonch | Dec 6:
BATTLE OF POONCH
The identity and credentials of the contestants of two major political parties seems to have blurred in the thick as the competition goes on the lines of weightage carried by the Gujjar and Pahari leaders of National Conference and Congress.
Whether National Conference is good or Congress is bad is a secondary issue. What is really on test on the ground is the might of the people like Choudhary Aslam and Ajaz Ahmed Khan of Congress versus Mian Altaf and Javed Rana of National Conference.
With no Gujjar candidate in fray in this caste sensitive assembly constituency in Poonch which goes to polls on December 12, the Pahari vote is up for a triple slicing between Yash Pal Sharma, the Congress revel, Jahangir Mir of Congress and Ajaz Jaan of the National Conference. Under such circumstances, the bulk of Gujjar vote holds the key to victory of any candidate.
In careful calculation of voting patterns guided by the caste sentiments, the Congress and National Conference are not talking about development, peace and prosperity. Instead, they are matching the might of each other in putting on front best of Gujjar stuff from their parties to outsmart each other.
The Congress has put Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, a veteran Gujjar leader and Member of Parliament to woo the community votes with his experience, the youthful Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Minister of State for Forests is there to exercise his charisma. On the other hand the National Conference has Mian Altaf Ahmed to use his spiritual wand and other legislators like Bashir Ahmed Naaz and Javed Rana to prove their local guts among the Gujjars.
With over 26,000 voters out of the total of 96,000 in the constituency Gujjars could have been the deciding factor had they been able to decide unanimously their candidate. It was not the case because even the Gujjar Front failed to evolve a consensus.
During a recent meeting of the Gujjar Front leaders and workers in Pooch initially it had been decided that the tribe should support the Congress candidate, Jehangir Mir on the plea that it was under the Congress led Government that, under SRO-294,conceded their demand for increase in the reserved quota for the scheduled Tribes in the recruitment in Government services and promotion. |
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