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| Decisive test for Abdullah | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 27: Lording political power in Jammu and Kashmir, whether in government or outside it –for most part of recent history, the state’s politically most distinguished family of the Abdullahs had an acid test in recent elections. Tomorrow’s results will determine their political future.
The father-son duo, Farooq and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference, are confident about their party returning to power that it so dramatically lost in 2002, heralding the state’s first coalition government in the form of a Congress-PDP alliance.
There is no doubt the National Conference is winning, Omar Abdullah, the party chief, maintained throughout his campaign.
But most analysts in state believe that it is going to be a tough battle for the National Conference, Jammu and Kashmir’s oldest party which held sway over the Muslim population for decades until the PDP became a serious political player from the late-1990s.
Gul Ahmed, who teaches political science at the University of Kashmir, says the National Conference appeared to be fighting for survival - notwithstanding the fact that it finished as the single largest party after the 2002 assembly elections. “They (Abdullahs) are themselves not sure of their victory. Otherwise Farooq wouldn’t have scurried at the last minute to file papers for a second seat from Srinagar,” said Ahmed.
Farooq Abdullah contested from Sonwar and Hazratbal constituencies of Srinagar. Omar fought from the party’s former bastion, north Kashmir’s Ganderbal, where he surprisingly lost to PDP candidate Qazi Mohammad Afzal in 2002.
The iconic Sheikh Abdullah, the National Conference founder, ruled Jammu and Kashmir off and on till his death in 1982. His son Farooq succeeded him and was chief minister thrice (1982-84, 1987-90 and 1996-2002). Omar is today a member of the Lok Sabha.
“Regaining lost power is going to be difficult for the most distinguished family of Kashmir,” says a senior journalist.
That may or may not be true but Farooq Abdullah betrayed some of his uncertainty when he accused separatists of covertly helping the PDP.
The senior Abdullah took many by surprise when he publicly denounced pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had otherwise called for an election boycott, for reportedly asking the Jamaat-e-Islami cadres in south Kashmir to vote for PDP. The PDP is expected to benefit in the Kashmir Valley even if it doesn’t bag a single seat from even the Muslim areas of the Jammu region.
The high turnout in the elections, especially in rural areas, has surprised the National Conference. Low turnouts would have perhaps meant a convenient victory for the cadre-based National Conference.
Many believe that the PDP and Congress have a tacit understanding to form another coalition government. The two parties fell out over the Amarnath land controversy but they did not snap ties in New Delhi.
Not just that but foreign minister and Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee recently hailed the coalition rule with the PDP as a ‘success’ even though the government fell before completing its term. He made the remarks in the middle of the electoral process in which the Congress and PDP were rivals.
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