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| Political parties keen to eat more than they can digest | | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu |May 17
Even with fears of standing on a weak wicket the leadership of several mainstream political parties is so much optimistic about its performance in the ensuing Assembly poll that it is prepared to contest majority of the 87 Assembly seats in the
ensuing election..Take the case of the BSP,which after having split in two factions is getting ready for the birth of the third faction,continues to announce that it would contest all the 87 seats.Its rival National Bhaujan Party,headed by Dr Sat Pal,is not prepared to face the reality when he says that his unit will field its candidates in all the
constituencies.
In 2002 poll the undivided BSP had fielded its candidates in 33 constituencies and won one seat of Vijaypur.Its winning candidate,Manjit Singh has already crossed over to the PDP.Though in 2002 the BSP was considered a political force to reckon with its
candidate together polled only 4.50 percent votes.Both the factions have hardly any base in the Kashmir valley and their pockets of influence are limited to 10 to 12 constituencies in the Jammu region.As such it is surprising to hear the leadership of the two factions getting ready for contesting all the seats.
The state unit of the BJP does not seem to have learnt anything from the drubbing it got in 2002 election when it could win only one seat.It had fielded its candidates in 58 constituencies.The Party Chief,Ashok Khajuria,has said that his organisation
will contest 70 seats and when from 58 constituencies it had contested its candidates had polled 8.57 per cent of the polled votes.Its base in the Kashmir valley and in the remote areas of the Jammu region is negligible still it is not in a mood to be treated as a nonentity by contesting not more than 20 seats. In 2002 election the National Conference had been on the top as far as fielding its candidates in 85 constituencies and winning 28 seats are concerned..In the ensuing election it plans to contest all the seats on the plea that its vote percentage (28.24) in 2002 was the highest as compared to the other parties.
The Panthers Party has decided to contest more than 50 seats when in 2002 its candidates in 36 constituencies had polled 3.83 per cent of totaled polled votes.Leader of the Panthers Party in the Assembly,Harsh Dev Singh,is confident that his party
will be able to win not less than 20 seats against four it had won in the previous election.The Congress is yet to open its mind because it is waiting for party high command to decide whether the Congress will gone alone in the poll battle or in alliance with the PDP. In 2002 poll the congress,which had no pre-poll alliance with the PDP,had fielded its candidates in 78 constituencies and had won 20 seats with a voting pertange of 24.24.The PDP leadership does not seem to be prepared to follow the example of the congress and indications are that it may contest not less than 70 seats.In the previous election the PDP,which was then less than a two-year old baby,had contested 59 seats
and won 16 with the voting percentage of 9.28 indicating that in about 35 constituencies its candidates failed to get more than one per cent of the total polled votes.
CPM and CPI too are getting ready to contest more seats than they did in the previous poll.The CPM had contested seven seats and won two,the CPI had fielded its candidates in five constituencies fromwhere it drew blank.The CPM candidates had polled 0.88 per cent of the polled votes in the seven constituencies it had contested.There were over 12 other parties that had contested seats numbering between one and 19 but all of them had failed to win even a single seat.It was only the independents who could make a mark by winning 15 seats out of 245 they contested.But majority of these independent candidates have either joined the PDP,or the Congress or the National Conference.,
In the ensuing election the shape and size of the political parties will witness a major change..By the time the election schedule is announced more parties would have announced their birth.Already Jammu Kashmir Democratic Party ,led by Ghulam Hassan Mir,who had won the Tangmarg seat on the PDP ticket. Efforts are on for floating the third front.Once it is formed it would give new dimension to the battle of the
hustings.Why even those parties that have a limited base in the state declare their intentions of contesting more seats than their capacity?It is the outcome of their belief that such an exercise is "batle half won."In fact it has become a status symbl for the parties to jump into the poll fray even if they lose their security deposit..At least they can
say "we also ran the race" and get entitled to the security cover.(eom).
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