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| Peoples Democratic Party VS National Conference | | Kashmir's Political Scene -- I | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 18: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was founded by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in July 1999. Launching his regional outfit in Srinagar, which is now headed by his daughter and former Leader of the Congress Legislature Party in the Legislative Assembly Mehbooba Mufti, he declared that one of his main objectives would be to "persuade the Government of India to initiate an unconditional dialogue with Kashmiris for resolution of the Kashmir problem". Earlier the Mufti had worked with the Congress for years. In fact, he headed the Congress party in the state for several years.
In 1986, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him Union Minister for Tourism. However, in 1987, after the Meerut riots he resigned as a Union Minster and subsequently from the Congress. He was not happy with the way the Congress handled Meerut riots. In 1989, the Janata Dal-led coalition of parties, namely, National Front, came to power. V P Singh became Prime Minister and Mufti Sayeed Home Minister. After the collapse of the Janata Dal, he rejoined the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao. It was at the point in time that the Mufti tried to persuade the Union Government to start talks with the people of Kashmir, but his efforts did not produce the desired results. Not satisfied, he severed his relations with the Congress party and founded the PDP.
The PDP contested the 2002 Assembly elections. This was its first plunge in the electoral arena. It fielded candidates across Kashmir. It also fielded candidates in Jammu province and Ladakh. However, it was in Kashmir that the just-three-old party clicked. It did not achieve any success anywhere in Jammu province and Ladakh. In Kashmir, the PDP captured 19 seats out of a total of 46 assembly seats. This was an astounding victory in the sense that it captured the political space of the oldest political party of the state, the National Conference (NC). The PDP captured most of the seats in North Kashmir, especially Anantnag and Pulwama districts. Since it captured most of the seats in these two districts, it was described by many as "TDP" (two-district party).
The spectacular success of the PDP in the Kashmir Valley not only broke the hegemony and domination of the NC over the Kashmir's political scene, but also resulted in a situation Kashmir had never witnessed after 1951, when elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent-cum-legislative Assembly were held for the first time in the state. Kashmir for the first time witnessed a fractured mandate. Hitherto, the people of Kashmir used to return to the assembly candidates belonging to one political party. There also used to be few exceptions. People of Kashmir used to repose faith in one party for certain definite reasons and one of them used to be their urge to enjoy majority in the legislative assembly so that Kashmir's hegemony over the state's two other regions was maintained.
The fractured result that Kashmir produced in 2002 had its impact on the state's polity. The NC, which could capture only 28 seats out of 87, was dislodged from power and the PDP, in alliance with the Congress, formed the first ever coalition government in the state. The Congress had won 20 seats, including 15 from Jammu, three from Kashmir and two from Ladakh. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi handed over the state power to Mufti Sayeed saying she was doing so in the "larger national interest". (To be continued) |
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