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| Will Azad succeed in his gample of playing the Kundal card ? | | | Gareeb Dass
Jammu | June 7
Will B.R.Kundal,who quit the plump post of Chief Secretary to join the Congress and get inducted in the cabinet fulfill the Congress dream of securing the party's base in the Dalit dominated constituencies ? No doubt even after Mayawati led BSP has been able to make inroads in the Congress pockets of influence since 1996 Assembly elections in the Jammu province there have been a number of senior party leaders who have succeeded in restricting the seat and vote share of the BSP.If Mr Kundal has been motivated to join the Congress for denting the BSP base his task has been made easy by the recent split in the BSP.The most influential BSP leader,Dr Satpal,after his expulsion from the party,has already floated his National Bahujan Party(NBP).After the birth of the NBA the entire BSP camp has suffered vertical and horizontal split.Mr Kundal is expected to cash on the split and win back the support of the Dalits and the downtrodden for the Congress.His forte are his cleaner image as head of the civil administration and his winsome smile may help him in further strengthening his charisma among the voters.
That he has the capacity of posing a threat to the indispensability of those congress leaders who have been elected to the Assembly from Reserve constituencies became evident when a senior and tested party leaders,especially Ms Suman Bhagat,M.L.A from R.S.Pora openly expressed her resentment against the Chief Minister for accommodating new entrants to the Congress in the cabinet on one hand and on the other ignoring old,tried and tested party leaders.She,in fact,felt a threat to her in case Mr Kundal was given the congress mandate for contesting the R.S.Pura seat in the Assembly in the ensuing election.It seems Ghulam Nabi Azad has gambled.He has staked his political prestige by betting on Kundal.What is the reason for Azad ? He has realised that those congressmen,who represent the Rserved constituencies in the Assembly,have lost their political shine.He knows it that had these congress leaders been able to maintain their hold on people living in the Reserved constituencies or in those where the influence of the Dalits cannot be brushed aside the Congress would have not lost the support of those who joined the BSP over the years.Hence the Chef Minister has decided to play the Kundal card.
According to a number of BSP leaders and their supporters,"the rosy face of Kundal may not make a dent in our base because as a senior functionary of the civil administration he has not been in a position to clear the quota backlog in the Government services.Explaining it they said that the eight per cent Scheduled Caste reservations in the Government services had not been fully honoured with the result there was a huge backlog which Kundal could not tackle while serving as a senior most officer.They threw a challenge to Kundal by conveying him to win the next election from a constituency of his choice.They admitted that the split in the BSP had the potential of causing split in the pro-BSP vote bank.But they are not prepared to agree that this split can be exploited by none other than Kundal.They say heading civil administration was totally different from working as a minister or a politician.
But Azad has some different strategy in mind.He is trying to emulate Gujarat Chief Minister,Narender Modi,who,despite the riots and all that flowed from them,won the Assembly poll.Azad wants to follow Modi by going to the election on the slogan of development.That is why he has introduced double shift system in executing development projects.During the last six months he has been listing the achievements of the Government he heads and in this connection he does not forget to mention the role he has played in taking revolutionary steps in the sectors of Industry,agriculture,health and education.He and his precdecessors too had launched a war against the corrupt elements in the Government but during the Azad's time the Vigilance Organisation received full ensouragement and support from the Chief Minister for launching legal proceedings against scores of senior retired and inservice officers.Azad also wants to follow Modi who fielded new faces in the recent election in Gujarat which yielded dividends for the BJP.So the first experiment Azad plans to conduct was to se the Kundal card. Kundal hails from R.S.Pora belt where he has some following among people besides his pockets of influence in other constituencies and areas adjoining R.S.Pura.
For B.R.Kundal the next five months are very crucial.As a Minster he has to show results which could silence his critics in the Congress.If he succeeds he is sure to prolong his survival as a politician.His success will also pave the way for the Congress to demonstrate better performance in the ensuing election. |
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