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| NC likely to have poll alliance with small parties | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Dec 19
Notwithstanding assertions by the National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah as well as his son, the party President Omer Abdullah of NC going alone in the forthcoming assembly elections in the state, the party is in desperate search of some allies among the small parties. Particularly in Jammu region National Conference will not be averse to enter into seat sharing arrangement or a tacit understanding with some small parties, to avoid multi cornered contest, where it perceives that the same will cut into National Conference votes.
While the National Conference is most keen to have poll alliance with BSP, among the other possible alliance partners or those with whom the National Conference can enter into some sort of understanding, the JKNPP of Prof. Bhim Singh is believed to be on the top of the list. The Panthers Party, which has lately burnt all its bridges with the Congress, after projecting itself to be the staunch critic and opponent of PDP, too is in search of alliance partner in the polls for next assembly elections. The number two in the Panthers Party, the former Education Minister in Mufti government, Harsh Dev Singh, has already thrown hints of his party not being averse to have electoral understanding with the National Conference, to brighten the electoral prospects of both the parties.
Still another ally of the National Conference in the next elections can be the Samajwadi Party led in the state by Sheikh Abdul Rehman, who during his tenure as President of the State unit of BSP, was believed to be very close to the then ruling National Conference. He was removed as Chief of the J&K unit of BSP by party Supremo Mayawati, on account of complaints by some other state party leaders against Abdul Rehman for allegedly having close proximity with the then ruling National Conference and not playing the role of genuine opposition. Dr. Farooq Abdullah has also made known his inclination to join the proposed third front, if at all it takes place at the National level. The SP President, Mulayam Singh will be leading the third front, it is generally believed. In that case JKNPP may also join the front. If the same materializes before the assembly elections in J&K National Conference, Panthers Party and SP would fight the elections to the state assembly in alliance. The National Conference may leave few seats for the two parties, in lieu of their support to the NC in most of the seats, where NC will be fielding its candidates.
The chances of some sort of tacit understanding between the National Conference and BJP too cannot be ruled out. There are reports that a highly soft spoken religious cum social activist, who is having his prosperous business in Jammu and who has close connections with some top BJP leaders, including L K Advani and more so with incharge of party affairs in J&K, Shanta Kumar as well as with the former J&K Chief Minister and NC patron Farooq Abdullah, is exerting to clinch some sort of secret understanding between the National Conference and the BJP for the next assembly elections, which according to his calculations can benefit both the parties. The strategy sought to be built is that while outwardly both the parties will go on ruling out any possibility of understanding between the two and take the public posture of two parties considering each other as untouchable and the bitterest force, standing poles apart, but still entering into a secret understanding. Under that understanding NC may not field its candidates in some Hindu majority urban seats in Jammu region, where BJP has its strong base and secretly instruct its activists to transfer the likely party votes to the BJP, while the BJP reciprocate the same in some Muslim majority seats in Jammu region, issuing instructions to its activists to support the National Conference candidates. However with deep mutual distrust of the supporters and sympathizers of the two parties against each other and particularly those who form traditional solid vote bank of BJP rating NC as a Kashmir centric, anti Jammu and even anti Hindu organization, any such understanding, however secret it may be, has the apprehension of boomeranging.
The National Conference, it is reliably learnt, is also keeping open the option of boycotting the elections. At least the party will like to go on threatening so, if the congenial atmosphere is not created and the party is not convinced that there will be no use of official machinery to influence the voters in favour of the ruling combine. The National Conference will also keep on crying wolf of rigging of elections, till the last date, for the same to come handy to the party to have face saving, in case of NC losing the next elections and not being able to come back to power. |
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