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| Reality bites! Cong, PDP eroding NC's support in Rajouri, Poonch | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Sept 18: After having been literally wiped out from erstwhile district Doda, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress have begun eroding foundations of National Conference in twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
Both PDP and Congress have made significant political gains, inversely damaging NC, which is heading the coalition government in the state. The two parties are working at snail's pace, reaching out to the masses in far-flung and hilly areas of twin districts, gaining their confidence and strengthening their respective parties.
Presently, Rajouri District has 4 assembly constituencies Nowshera, Darhal, Rajouri and Kalakote while Poonch has three namely Surankote, Mendhar and Haveli-Poonch. Of these, three are being represented by National Conference (NC) MLAs which include two in Rajouri district (Radhay Sham Sharma for Nowshera and Rashpal Singh for Kalakote) and one in Poonch district (Aejaz Jan of Haveli-Poonch).
PDP and Congress are sharing two constituencies each. PDP has Darhal (Zulfiqar Choudhary) and Mendhar (Sardar Rafiq Hussain Khan) in its kitty while Congress is representing Surankote (Choudhary Aslam) and Rajouri (Shabir Khan) constituencies. However, political observers including leaders of NC accept that if the elections are held in the next six months, PDP and Congress would leave them way behind.
Despite having relatively better performers in these twin districts, observers maintain that leadership of National Conference has virtually forgotten the MLAs and MLCs of these two strategically important districts. None of the sitting NC MLAs or MLCs are likely to be inducted in the state coalition ministry. They have been abandoned for the reasons best known to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and party president Dr. Farooq Abdullah.
The only consolation that they have managed is some of them, not MLAs but MLCs are presently working as heads of various recommendatory boards while rest try to vent their anger during the assembly session. On the contrary, Congress and PDP have both given due share to their representatives from these constituencies. Congress has an MOS in Shabir Khan while Choudhary Mohammed Aslam is legislative party leader
PDP has given key roles to Zulfiqar Choudhary and Sardar Rafiq Hussain Khan. Both play significant role in party's highest decision making board. Unlike NC, Congress and PDP have remained staunchly behind their leaders. Not only the winners but even those who have lost have been stationed at the district headquarters and asked to keep working in the rural belts of the twin districts.
It has been reliably learnt that NC leadership is nervous and waiting to see how congress responds once the coalition government completes three years. Despite making public statements over the tenure issue, leaders accept that entire coterie which is seen round the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wants to see Omar on chair by the mid of year 2012. "Not Rajouri-Poonch but Omar experiment is important for NC," said a political observer.
He added that Gujjar-Pahari issue is also likely to damage National Conference in these districts. "Much worse is on cards for NC if it does not start repair work. We are loosing heavily and if, NC MLAs and MLCs from Rajouri and Poonch districts are not given their due share, things are likely to deteriorate," added another leader. |
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