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| Choudhary, Lone, Rather get biggest leads for NC | | Farooq, Mufti, Mehbooba, Ruhullah, Veeri among poor performes | |
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, May 17: Ruling National Conference’s clean sweep euphoria apart, both the seniormost leaders---Dr Farooq Abdullah as well as Chief Minister Omar Abdullah---have proved to be poor performers among the incumbent MLAs in the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu & Kashmir results for which were declared on Saturday. Others of the lot include NC’s Ministerial aspirants, Aga Syed Ruhulla and Javed Ahmed Dar, besides Peoples Democratic Party’s top brass, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti, and former Ministers of PDP Abdul Rehman Veeri and Abdul Gaffar Sofi.
Even after engineering former PDP leader Sheikh Ghulam Qadir Pardesi’s defection, allegedly with the commitment of getting him nominated as MLC, NC has retained Assembly segment of Sonwar with a paltry margin of 50 votes. In the general Assembly elections in 2008, NC patron and former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah, had won this segment with a poor margin of 94 votes. As against the winner Dr Abdullah’s 7,018 votes, then PDP candidate, Pardesi, had secured 6,924. Congress candidate, Khem Latta Wakhloo, had stood third with 6,301.
Pardesi joined NC earlier this year and was controversially inducted as MLC. Wakhloo’s Congress today happens to be NC’s coalition partner. However, this addition of 13,000 votes was nowhere visible in the NC’s kitty yesterday. It was just good luck of the NC candidate, MohammadYasin Shah, who had been denied ticket in 2008, that his party retained Sonwar with a margin of 50 votes. NC’s margin has been nominal a regards the party’s performance in this particular segment for the Lok Sabha election.
In 2008, Dr Abdullah had contested from Sonwar and Hazratbal segments in Srinagar and turned victorious on both seats. By-election has become necessary after Dr Abdullah’s election to a seat in Rajya Sabha. He has now successfully contested Lok Sabha election from the Central Kashmir constituency of Srinagar-Budgam.
In Hazratbal too, NC has this time cut a sorry figure in the Lok Sabha election. Assembly by-election has been deferred in Hazratbal which is scheduled to go to polls on May 30th. In yesterday’s results for Lak Sabha, PDP’s Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari has taken a lead of nearly 2,000 votes in Hazratbal segment over Dr Abdullah. In 2008 Assembly elections, Dr Abdullah had defeated PDP’s Asiya Naqash with a margin of over 4,000 votes from the same segment. She is yet again PDP’s candidate against NC’s Dr Mustafa Kamal from Hazratbal in the May 30th polling for the Assembly.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has retained his superiority in Ganderbal but his margin over the PDP candidate has also dwindled from 8,000 in the Assembly elections to 6,000 in the Lok Sabha elections.
NC’s other major losses have come in from Budgam proper and Rafiabad. In Budgam proper, NC’s incumbent, Aga Syed Ruhulla had scored an impressive victory over PDP’s Mohammad Kamal Malik with a margin of nearly 10,000 votes in the 2008 Assembly elections. In the results declared for Lok Sabha yesterday, PDP’s Shia leader Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari has taken a lead of over 1,500 in Budgam proper over NC’s Dr Abdullah. Similarly, PDP’s Mohammad Dilawar Mir has taken lead of nearly 1,000 votes over NC’s Sharief-ud-din Shariq in home segment of Rafiabad in the Lok Sabha elections. After retaining this seat for several terms, PDP’s high-profile former Minister, Dilawar Mir, had lost to NC’s debutante, Javed Ahmed Dar, in Rafiabad, in the Assembly elections of 2008.
Significantly, both, Aga Ruhulla as well as Javed Dar, have been strong contenders for Ministerial positions in Omar Abdullah’s Cabinet. NC has also suffered damage in Shia-dominated Zadibal segment in Srinagar where PDP’s Ansari has established lead of 4,000 votes over Dr Abdullah in yesterday’s results. NC’s Pir Afaq had defeated PDP’s incumbent MLA Shehjahan Dar in Zadibal in 2008.
On the other hand, NC’s MLA and former Minister has not only denied any lead to the Peoples Conference Chairman, Sajjad Gani Lone, but also maintained impressive lead of 20,000 votes over the PDP in Handwara segment. NC’s lead over the runner up PC is over 3,000 votes in Handwara today. Similarly, NC’s Kupwara MLA, Mir Saifullah, has performed well and in his segment NC has established lead of 11,000 votes over PDP and 2,500 votes over PC. NC’s most spectacular achievement in Kupwara district is that it has maintained lead over PC in all 5 segments and over PDP in 4 segments. PDP’s MLA, Abdul Haq Khan, has performed well and maintained lead of over 3,000 over the NC candidate in Lolab segment.
NC’s maximum vote in a particular segment has come from Speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone’s Sonawari where the party’s candidate, Mr Shariq, has polled 27,585 votes and taken lead of over 11,000 over the PDP candidate Dilawar Mir.
Sitting MLAs and Ministers, Abdul Rahim Rather and Mian Altaf Ahmed, have yet again proved to be valuable assets for their party, NC, in their home segments of Chrar-e-Sharief and Kangan, respectively. While NC has taken lead of 16,000 over PDP in Chrar-e-Sharief, it has improved its lead by 2,000 and defeated PDP in Kangan with a lead of 10,000 votes this time.
In PDP, both Mufti Sayeed as well as Mehbooba Mufti have performed poorly in their South Kashmir segments of Anantnag proper and Wachi, respectively. Even as Sayeed and Mehbooba had defeated NC candidates with high margin of over 7,000 each in 2008, NC has established lead of 86 votes in Anantnag and about 1,000 in Wachi in the Lok Sabha election. NC has also taken minor lead over PDP in Homeshalibugh and come almost alevel with Mufti’s party in Bijbehara. In both, 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections, PDP had trounced NC in both these segments, previously represented by Mufti’s Ministers, Abdul Gaffar Sofi and Abdul Rehman Veeri.
However, PDP has performed remarkably well in in MLA Pir Mansoor’s Shangus where it has taken the highest lead of 6,400 votes over NC. MLA Javed Mustafa Dar has also given lead of nearly 3,000 votes to PDP in his home segment of Chadoura. Similarly, MLA Rafi Mir has given impressive lead of over 4,000 votes to PDP in his Pahalgam segment even as NC’s defeated Assembly candidate, Altaf Kaloo, has been inducted as MLC and NC’s rebel, Irfan Kullar, has joined back his party.
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