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| Jammu's changing attitude towards Cong | | Discrimination The Reason | | Neha
Jammu, Feb 29: The Congress party's support-base is dwindling in Jammu by the day because the people are fed up of its discriminatory policies, as also because it is sharing power with a party which is known for its bias against them. Actually, the Congress party would have bitten dust in 2008 itself, but it captured 13 seats because of the follies of the BJP, and even of the Panthers Party (NPP). The Congress captured as many as 7 seats in the Muslim-dominated assembly constituencies, located in the erstwhile Doda district, Poonch, Rajouri and Reasi districts. The Congress won 5 out of 6 seats in the erstwhile Doda district -- 4 Muslim-dominated constituencies and 1 Hindu-majority constituency (Ramban) --, and one each from Poonch, Rajouri and Reasi districts, all Muslim-dominated.
The people of the erstwhile Doda district voted overwhelmingly for the Congress candidates believing their vote for this party would mean the office of chief minister in the hands of the people of Jammu province, in effect, in the hands of Ghulam Nabi Azad. The belief was not misplaced. The Congress contested the 2008 assembly elections under the leadership of Azad and JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz. Azad himself contested from Bhadrwah assembly constituency. Had Azad not been in the fray, the Congress would not have won the number of seats it won in the erstwhile Doda district.
The Congress won a paltry 6 seats in the Hindu-majority areas. It won in Billawar (Kathua district); Gandhinagar, Akhnoor and Khour (Jammu district), Chenani (Udhampur district) and Ramban (Ramban district).
It is important to note that the Hindu-dominated areas in Jammu province return to the assembly as many as 24 members. This means the Congress party could capture only 25 per cent of the seats in these areas and almost 50 per cent of the seats in the Muslim-majority areas of Jammu province (7). The Congress candidates in Poonch and Rajouri districts won with a slender margin. Similarly, the victory of the Congress candidates in the Gandhinagar, Khour and Chenani constituencies was not very impressive. They won by a very narrow margin. It was the Congress candidate in the Akhnoor constituency who performed exceedingly well. His was an astounding victory.
All this shows that the performance of the Congress party in Jammu province was not well and this despite the fact that Azad and Soz put in all of their efforts to capture as many seats in Jammu province as possible. Things have changed now in Jammu province. Hold elections today and see the result. The Congress would lose and lose very badly. It's time for the Congress leadership to look all these facts in the face and refashion its approach towards Jammu province so that the Congress is able to retrieve the lost ground. But it can retrieve the lost ground only if it is prepared to sever its ties with the NC and fulfills the promises it made, including the two commitments that the Congress party, if voted to power, would set up in Jammu an adequately empowered regional council and appoint a delimitation commission to redraw the assembly constituencies. |
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