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| ‘Cong not scared of contesting Panchyat poll on party basis’ | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Nov 14: The state unit of the Congress has made it clear that it was not afraid of contesting the ensuing Panchayat elections on party basis. The congress spokesman, Ravinder Sharma, said that during an all party meeting convened by the Minister for Rural Development, Ali Mohammad Sagar, various NGOs and social and political organisations that had attended the meeting, had suggested that the Panchayat and civic elections be held on a non-party basis.
In reply to a question regarding the demand of the PDP favouring Panchayat elections to be held on party basis Sharma said that since the PDP and the BJP did not attended the meeting, there is no knowledge about the decision.
Sharma explained that the only rationale behind the plan of holding the Panchayat elections on a non-party basis was to prevent political division and bitterness to percolate to the grass root level.
He said win or defeat in the Panchayat elections does not necessarily reflect the weakness or strength of the political parties. "Our plan is to organise a free and fair elections so that people were able to elect Panches and Sarpanches as per their choice, "adding that the PDP's charge that the ruling coalition planned to rig the elections was baseless.
However, the PDP circles say that the Congress and the National Conference were for contesting the panchayat election on a non-party basis simply to avoid getting exposed. Explaining it a senior PDP leader said that since the Congress and the National Conference have suffered major erosion in their strength in the state they were not prepared to face an embarrassment if they failed to win maximum number of Panchayats.
And the PDP leadership seems to be confident on its gains during the last three years' of its role as an effective opposition party. The leadership is hopeful that in the ensuing Panchayat and civic elections various areas in the state, especially in the Kashmir valley, will witness a PDP wave that may have the strength and fury of washing out the National Conference. The PDP sources said that the idea of contesting the Panchayat elections on a non-party basis had been conceived by the National Conference leadership because it feels that the organisation has suffered more erosion in its areas of influence than the Congress.
The sources said that as its partner in sharing power the Congress willingly purchased the idea as it too was shaky on its performance in the elections. The sources said that whether in the Lok Sabha or the Assembly elections political division gets percolated to the village level and it was strange that the Congress and the NC leadership does not want the political division and bitterness to flow to the rural areas in th Panchayat elections.
They said those who were going to vote in the Panchayat elections had their political leanings and ideologies and hence one cannot choke these channels of political diversity.
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