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| Farooq Abdullah, Justice Kirmani, Akbar Ganai tipped as NC candidates in Valley | | PDP fielding Mufti Sayeed, Tariq Qarra, Dilawar Mir | |
NC likely to surrender Ladakh under high pressure from Cong
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Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Apr 2: Jammu & Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz, has been assigned by his party high command in the Union Capital to exert maximum possible pressure on the National Conference (NC) leadership so as to ensure that the ruling coalition’s safest seats of Srinagar and Leh are shared on “one each” basis between the two parties. He is likely to be joined in his Mission Kashmir by former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and, if necessary, by Prithviraj Chauhan.
While Prof Soz has been camping in the state’s summer capital since Wednesday and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has arrived in today, former Chief Ministers Dr Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad are both expected to reach here in the forenoon on Friday to finalise the seat-sharing arrangement between the two coalition partners. All the four senior political leaders will be participating in a crucial meeting of the coalition partners’ Coordination Committee tomorrow. Recuperating after a surgery in his foot at his New Delhi residence, Dr Abdullah is scheduled to return to the Union Capital on Monday. He is likely to announce the names of the coalition candidates at a news conference here alongwith Soz and Azad on Saturday or Sunday.
Highly placed sources in the coalition government revealed to Early Times that the Congress high command had not only decided to field a candidate in Leh but had also short-listed two nominees for this Budhhist-dominated seat. AICC’s argument, according to sources, is that the coalition partners must share the safest as well as the weakest seats in Jammu & Kashmir on 50:50 basis. Senior leaders, including Soz and Azad, are said to be believing unanimously that Srinagar and Leh are the coalition’s safest seats and Jammu and Anantnag are the weakest ones. There are no two opinions in the party that Jammu-Poonch is BJP’s safest seat while Anantnag-Pulwama is PDP’s sure seat.
Baramulla-Kupwara and Udhampur-Doda are placed alike in between. “What Baramulla-Kupwara is for NC, Udhampur-Doda is for Congress”, said a senior Congress leader. According to him, having an NC candidate in Leh-Kargil would only ensure both of the safest seats for NC. Many in the party insist that such an arrangement would simply mean both of the weakest seats (Jammu and Anantnag) for Congress. With the coalition’s 50:50 chances in Udhampur, Congress could lose all the three.
On the other hand, NC leadership’s argument is that the party’s candidates have won three of the four segments in the recent Assembly elections in Ladakh. Party’s election strategists insist that T Namgyal, who was NC’s MLA in 1996-2002 period, was their candidate in Nobra in the 2008 elections even as he contested as an Independent candidate. They assert that NC’s Assembly elections ally and former LBA chief, Thuptsan Chewang, would revolt and contest as an Independent if Leh went to Congress in the seat-sharing arrangement. “He can support the coalition candidate only if he belongs to National Conference”, said a senior NC leader.
However, sources in the Congress party indicated that the AICC leaders had already taken exception to NC’s “clandestine role” in the lately held elections for Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Jammu Municipal Corporation and made it clear to the NC leadership in Jammu last month that such “mischievous politics” would not augur well for the coalition government. In these elections, supporting each other, BJP and NC had clandestinely shared the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively. Inspite of having its membership close to the number of BJP councilors, Congress had drawn a blank and, consequently, suffered considerable embarrassment and humiliation. Since that day, Congress is said to be eying Ladakh with vengeance.
There are enough indications that, notwithstanding a lot of prestige building in the last few days, NC would be forced to surrender Leh-Kargil.
Well-placed sources, meanwhile, revealed to Early Times that NC had almost finalized its nominees for the Lok Sabha elections in Valley. According to these sources, none other than Dr Farooq Abdullah himself could be the party’s candidate from the most important Srinagar-Budgam. Sources said that former Chief Secretary, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool and the 5th time NC MLA, Mubarak Gul, had also been shortlisted in the initial exercise.
Sources said that one among former judge of J&K High Court, Mr Justice (Retd) Bashir Ahmed Kirmani, and Dr Mustafa Kamal would be NC’s candidate from Baramulla-Kupwara. However, Dr Mustafa’s prospects could become bleak if Dr Abdullah decided to contest in Srinagar-Budgam. Many in the party hold the opinion that putting up siblings of the Sheikh family on the two seats would look “awkward”.
These sources revealed that Mohamamd Akbar Ganai, who had contested Assembly elections from Dooru successfully in 1987 but unsuccessfully in 2008 and had also functioned as Minister of State in 1987-90, had been finalized as NC’s candidate from Anantnag-Pulwama. Former Minister Pirzada Ghulam Ahmed Shah, who lost in 2002 as well as in 2008, was reportedly a runner-up in the short-listing.
Sources said that PDP had finalized the names of all the three of its candidates in Kashmir valley. While the party patron and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, presently PDP’s sitting MLA from Anantnag proper, was tipped to be the party’s candidate from South Kashmir (Anantnag-Pulwama), his Ministerial colleagues Mohammad Dilawar Mir and Tariq Hameed Qarra would be the candidates from North Kashmir (Baramulla-Kupwara) and Central Kashmir (Srinagar-Budgam).
Dilawar and Qarra had lost to the NC candidates in the recent Assembly elections in PDP’s strongholds of Rafiabad and Batmaloo, respectively. In a significant disclose, sources said that PDP was trying its best to engineer the defection of former MLA Mohammad Sayeed Akhoon from NC to Mufti’s party. It could be PDP’s answer to the senior party leader Ghulam Qadir Pardesi’s recent defection to Dr Abdullah’s party. Sources said that, after learning about Akhoon’s secret meetings with some PDP leaders, NC had already begun to harness its Block President, Ghulam Mohiuddin, as its candidate from Hazratbal Assembly segment in the forthcoming by-elections. If NC succeeded in retaining Akhoon, Qarra’s sister-in-law, Asiya, was likely to be PDP’s candidate yet again in Hazratbal. She had lost to Dr Abdullah in December 2008.
Akhoon, who singularly remained stationed in Kashmir for the NC in 1990-96 period and contested successfully Assembly elections of 1996, was denied party’s ticket when Dr Abdullah decided to contest himself from Hazratbal as well as Sonwar in the 2008 Assembly elections. He was returned from both. He has, however, resigned both seats after his becoming a member of Rajya Sabha in the recent elections for the Upper House of the Parliament.
Sources said that NC would field one among former Member of J&K Public Service Commission, Ali Mohammad Watali, and former Chief Secretary Sheikh Ghulam Rasool from Sonwar for the Assembly by-elections. Sources said that after Pardesi’s defection back to NC, PDP was preparing an ordinary activist, Mohammad Ashraf, as its candidate for Sonwar Assembly segment
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