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| Congress becoming unpopular in Jammu day by day | | LOOKING BACK -- I | | Rustam
Jammu, Feb 15: The Congress party is becoming unpopular in Jammu province, its core constituency, day be day. The reason: It has failed to come up to the expectations of the people of this province, as also because the Congress ministers have failed to identify themselves with the problems the people in this province are facing. In fact, the Congress party and almost all the Jammu-based Congress ministers have made common cause with the National conference (NC) at the cost of their own constituency and left the people of Jammu province in the lurch.
It is time for the Congress party to look back and redesign their approach towards the NC and the people of Jammu province. It is a must. Such an exercise will help it learn the required lessons and regain the faith of the people of Jammu province. It would be only appropriate to reflect on outcome of the 2008 assembly elections in the state and put things in perspective. The Congress, which contested the 2008 Assembly elections in the Jammu province against heavy odds, scored a sort of victory over the BJP. It won 13 seats, as against 15 it won in 2002. The most significant aspect of the whole electoral exercise, which took place in the highly surcharged environment, was that the Congress again emerged as the number one party in Jammu province. It got 498,353 votes -- 21,661 more votes as compared to the BJP.
It would be quite relevant to point out here that most of the Congress candidates who lost to the BJP were ministers in the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led government and they included Mangat Ram Sharma, Mula Ram, Gulchain Singh Charak, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Suman Bhagat and Gharu Ram. They were a party to the land revocation order. That almost all the Congress ministers lost the election was a reflection on their performance. Had the Congress ministers performed well and nourished their constituencies as the Congress legislators - Raman Bhalla, Sham Lal Sharma, Tara Chand and Manohar Lal Sharma -- had done in the Gandhi Nagar, Akhnoor, Chhamb and Billawar constituencies and not tinkered with the May 26, 2007 land transfer order (read diversion of Baltal land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board), the result would have been somewhat different.
The Congress also suffered reverses in the constituencies like Marh, Jammu East, Nagrota, Hiranagar and Kalakot. Five causes were responsible for the Congress defeat. One was the presence of rebel candidates in these constituencies, who spoiled the electoral chances of the official candidates. The other was the indifferent attitude of the local leaders. In fact, a number of local leaders worked to ensure the defeat of the Congress candidates. The third was the lack of interest on the part of the JKPCC leadership. The fourth reason was that the Congress started the campaign much later and that its top leadership was plagued by infighting and confusion over choice of candidates. There was a general perception within the party and outside that the relations between the JKPCC chief and former Chief Minister were not friendly, notwithstanding their from-time-to-time statements to the contrary. Both the JKPCC chief and former Chief Minister did squabble over ticket distribution and both preferred candidates who had no chance to win. Take, for example, the candidates fielded in Kathua, Vijaypur, Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Jammu East, Marh, Nagrota, Kalakot, Raipur-Domana, Poonch, and even Jammu West. Lastly, the Congress was organizationally weak and not better prepared for elections. Had the Congress fielded strong and new candidates in these constituencies and reined in the rebels on time, the election results in Jammu province would have been quite different and it would have captured a minimum of 20 seats in the crucial Jammu province and formed the next government in the state. There was consensus across the spectrum that the Congress did not field "right" candidates in several constituencies and that too when the BJP and the NC had already announced their candidates. Some of the Congressmen had even gone to the extent of saying that only a "miracle" could help the Congress retrieve the situation in the Udhampur, Reasi, Kathua, Vijaypur, Bishnah, Suchetgardh, Jammu East, Marh, Nagrota, Kalakot, Raipur-Domana, Poonch and Jammu West constituencies and ensure the victory of the Congress candidates.
The Congress candidates and their leadership knew this full well. Hence, they tried their best to expose the contradictions in the approach of the BJP towards the border migrants and issue of delimitation. They thought such a strategy might help them neutralize the influence of the BJP. They sought to counter the claim of the BJP leaders, both local and central, that they had consistently fought for the cause of the border migrants and that their party, if voted to power would rehabilitate and compensate them. In fact, several Congress leaders termed the BJP as "anti-refugees" and accused it of hoodwinking the migrants during the election campaign in order to garner a few votes. They also took an exception to the pro-refugee statement made by the then BJP's prime Ministerial candidate, LK Advani, who visited Jammu just on the eve of elections in the Jammu and Samba districts and solicited votes for the party candidates. They dubbed his statement as a "bundle of white lies". Similarly, they ridiculed the pro-refugee statements made repeatedly by the local BJP leaders. (To be continued) |
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