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| Who will the Dogras vote for in the coming municipal elections? | | Limited Choice -- I | | Neha
Jammu, Jan 14: Elections to municipal corporations and municipalities could be held in the state in the coming March. There are indications to this effect available. Popularly-elected municipal corporations and municipalities need to be constituted at the earliest. Elections have become overdue. It was at the beginning of 2006 that elections to these local-body institutions were organized. It happened during the regime of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and after several years. One cannot really say if these popularly-elected municipal corporations and municipal committees had come up to the people's expectations or if these were corruption-free institutions. In fact, there are many who believe that corruption was rampant in these institutions. The elected members of the corporations and municipalities had "institutionalized corruption," most of the people believe. However, to highlight this sad aspect is not to suggest that there is no need for the popularly-elected corporations and municipalities. Elected corporations and municipalities need to be place at the earliest.
There are also reports that the Congress and the National Conference (NC) are unlikely to contest the elections to local bodies jointly. It is their internal matter. It would finally depend upon the attitude of the Congress high command. And, everyone knows that there is none in Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) who has the courage to go against the decision of the high command. The manner in which the NC inflicted a humiliating defeat on those demanding rotational chief minister and the manner in which the Congress high command swung solidly behind the NC only a few days ago should leave none in any doubt that the local Congress leadership, which is also vertically divided into several camps, has no say whatever. This much for the Congress and the NC.
There is hardly any political formation which will enter into electoral alliance with the People's Democratic Party (PDP). The relations between the NC and the PDP are highly strained. They do not see eye to eye with each other. They are the each other's bitter foe. The Local Congress leadership just cannot think in terms fighting the municipal elections jointly with the PDP. The reasons are obvious. The PDP itself would want to field its candidates in all the wards across the state. As for the BJP, there is also no possibility of this party entering into an alliance with any other political party and the vice-versa. There is no need to say anything more about the BJP.
In any case, the Congress, the NC, the PDP and the BJP are the four major political players in the state. As for NC its areas of influence are restricted to Kashmir alone and it cannot think of gaining anything in Jammu. However, its rival PDP has been gradually able to extend its support base to Jammu pockets with success and lately it has started making succesful inroads in the political constiteucnies considered to be strong bastions of Congress and BJP in Jammu.In that sense PDP has edge over NC and it is gradually emerging with a secular image in Jammu. If its political startegy and areas of influence work well, it can even give dent to Congress in the polls.
There could also be a few wards in Kashmir where certain local factors my help a few Congress candidates capture certain number of seats, especially in the municipalities. The Congress feels that its area of influence is confined to Jammu province, a few pockets in Kashmir Valley and Leh district. The BJP thinks that it can turn tables against the Congress and the NC in the 24 Hindu-majority assembly segments. It believes, and rightly, that the Muslims would not vote for its candidates seeking election to corporations or municipalities.
The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) is the fifth player. It has its area of influence limited to four assembly constituencies - Ramnagar, Udhampur, Samba and Chenani, as also in a few other pockets in Jammu province, especially Kathua and Reasi districts. It can capture a few municipalities in the Jammu province and its rivals would be many, including the Congress and the BJP, whose constituency is the same.
This would be the broad political scenario under which the people of the state would go to the local-bodies' elections. The people of Kashmir would have a choice between the NC and the PDP and to an extent the Congress. In other words, the NC, the PDP and the Congress would the three major formations not only in the Kashmir Valley but entire state and one can predict that the PDP would be the gainer. The NC and the Congress have messed up things to the extent that the people of Kashmir are fed up with these political parties. (To be continued) |
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