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| Report card: Half of coalition ministers lose | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 29: No one can beat the drum as louder as the Congress-Peoples Democratic Party coalition government, particularly during its last leg, did on its accountability, transparency and performance but in elections the performance of its erstwhile Ministers has blatantly exposed the shallowness and hollowness of their acceptance and credibility in the public eye.
Going by the performance chart, which coalition leaders, particularly from Congress read out at hundreds of elections meetings, the members of their erstwhile council of ministers should have returned to the assembly by getting rewards from the public. As the public holds key at end of the day, majority of the men who held key positions in the coalition government have been sent back packing. Most of the former Ministers who lost elections were not actually in the fray as they finished at poor third or fourth place.
The Congress has been blaming the Amarnath land row for its trouncing in Jammu regions but this does not seem to be a cogent reason. At many places the National Conference candidates have faired better than Congress. If Amarnath land row and strengthening of the Hindutva sentiment was a major, the National Conference should have been completely wiped out. Though NC candidate did not win many seats but they did better than Congress at many places.
43 legislators belonging to Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, Panthers Party or independents were Ministers in the coalition government at varying points of time between 2002 and 2008. While three of them were either not given party tickets or they did not contest, 20 of the 40 who sought re-election have been defeated, most of them have suffered quite humiliating defeat. In addition to these 43 candidates, there were two former Chief Ministers and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly who have won the present election with impressive margins.
Except three, all former Ministers belonging to the Congress in Jammu region have been defeated. Interestingly, two of the three who have been honoured by the public by victory had won the 2002 elections as independents and later joined Congress as associate members and contested recent elections on Congress ticket. Ajaz Ahmed Khan from Gool-Arnas, Abdul Majid Wani from Doda and Ghulam Mohammad Saroori from Inderwal are the only exceptions to the Congress’ ‘hall of shame’ in Jammu region.
The most stunning of the defeats of former Ministers were that of Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma in Jammu West, PDP leader and former Finance Minister Tariq Hameed Karra from Batmalloo, two other PDP leaders and formers Ministers Abdul Aziz Zargar and Qazi Mohammad Afzal from Noorabad and Gnaderbal constituencies, respectively. All three former Ministers of PDP lost to the National Conference candidates.
Pandit Mangat Ram Sharma, the grand old man of the Congress, was in fact completely pushed out of the contest in Jammu West. The winner here Chaman Lal Gupta polled 34288 votes and the runner up was a little known political face Surinder Singh Shingari who got an impressive 21251 votes. Mangat was pushed at third place getting meager 13853 votes.
The self proclaimed savour of the culture and heritage of the Duggar, Gulchain Singh Charak had a rather larger humiliation in Bishnah constituency –a constituency of his own choice. Making an entry into Azad government through backdoor –he was an MLC –Charak rose to the ranks in a matter of just two and half years and made a choice for his constituency himself. He finished third in Bishnah by getting a poor 8155 votes while the winner Ashwani Sharma –an independent candidate –got 14006 votes. The runner up, Kamal Arora, polled 13560 votes.
Prem Sagar Aziz was a Minister of State for Revenue, Planning and Finance in Ghulam Nabi Azad Government. In Bani constituency he too finished poor third with just 4550 votes while the winner, Lal Chand of BJP, got 11041 votes. Amarnath land row can not be blamed here as Ghulam Hyder Malik of National Conference faired better than Congress candidate. Malik polled an impressive 8792 votes.
Jugal Kishore was another stalwart in the coalition cabinet. He finished second at Reasi constituency by polling 19369 votes against 26031 votes of the BJP candidate Baldev Raj.
Chowdhary Gharu Ram of Congress remained a Minister in both Mufti and Azad governments. In his Suchetgarh constituency he finished third while National Conference candidate stood better. Quite interestingly the PDP candidate Tarlok Singh Bajwa trailed Gharu Ram by just 200 votes. Sham Choudhary of BJP won by 17995 votes, Taranjit Singh Tony of National Conference got an impressive 10403 votes and Gharu Ram polled only 6545 votes. Surprising enough, Tarlok Singh Bajwa of PDP got little over 6300 votes.
In Vijaypur constituency, the National Conference candidate Surjit Singh Slathia polled 21090 votes and the BJP candidate Chander Parkash Ganga trailed by getting 19000 votes. Manjit Singh of PDP got 1236 votes. Manjit was a Minister in coalition government.
Worst humiliation for the Congress was perhaps in Kathua constituency where its official nominee stood at fourth place and the rebel stood at third place. The winner –an independent candidate –Charanjit Singh polled 19123 votes, runner up Som Raj got 16761 votes. Congress rebel Babu Singh –who was Minister for Power and earlier for Rural Development –got 10887 votes. The Congress candidate Choudhary Lal Singh was a Minister in Mufti Cabinet till 2004 when he was elected to Parliament. He is a sitting MP and could poll on 6053 votes. His wife a Congress nominee in Basohli constituency–she had replaced husband in 2004 by-elections –too lost to the BJP candidate.
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