news details |
|
|
| Congress's loss would be gain of BJP, NPP provided… | | Jammu's Political Scene | | Neha
Jammu, Mar 1: BJP, like the Congress, is a national political party. It also has its branch in Jammu and Kashmir. But its support-base in the state is limited only nearly two dozen assembly constituencies and that, too, in Jammu province, which elects 37 MLAs and 2 members of Lok Sabha. The BJP demonstrated its strength in Jammu a number of times, particularly after 1998 and 1999, when it captured both the Lok Sabha seats - Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda - trouncing the Congress candidates. It also demonstrated its strength in 2008 by capturing 11 assembly seats. As of now, the BJP is passing through a very critical phase, with as many as 7 MLAs thrown out of the party on the charge that they indulged in cross-voting last April and the remaining 4 party MLAs struggling hard to hold their own in their respective constituencies. The BJP right now is down, but it is certainly not out. It can bounce back if its leadership conducts itself more responsibly and with commitment.
The BJP, everyone knows, has no support-base whatever in the Kashmir Valley because the Kashmiri Muslims, like the Muslims in Jammu province, do not appreciate the BJP ideology, whatever it is. There could be a few exceptions. In fact, the Muslims bitterly oppose the BJP saying its demand for the abrogation of Article 370 is ill-motivated and communally-designed. They believe that the BJP demand, if accepted, would enable the non-state subjects to change the state's demography and that the abrogation of this Article would also erode the special status the state has been enjoying since 1950 under this Article. Besides, the Muslims of Kashmir dub the BJP as an anti-Kashmir party. The fact of the matter is that there is no love lost between the BJP and the Muslims of Kashmir as well as majority of Muslims in Jammu province. The BJP leadership has never really tried to extend its area of influence beyond Pir Panjal. The reasons are not far to seek.
The story of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (NPP), which won three assembly seats in 2008, is no different, notwithstanding the fact that it, unlike the BJP, is considered a "secular" formation. Its support-base is also confined to certain districts of Jammu province, notably Ramnagar, Udhampur, Reasi, Samba and parts of Kathua district. In other words, the constituency of the NPP and the BJP is the same. The Muslims of Kashmir are opposed to the NPP because they believe that its whole approach is parochial/ regional or that it is essentially a Jammu-centric party.
Significantly, the support-base of the Congress - apart from three assembly constituencies in Kashmir - is also basically confined to Jammu province and Leh district in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh. It has its support-base somewhat evenly spread across the Jammu province. It has its support-base in the Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts and it also has its pockets of influence in certain constituencies located in the Poonch-Rajouri border belt. In fact, the Congress won in 2008 seven seats out of the 13 it captured from the Jammu province's Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Poonch and Rajouri districts, all, barring one, Muslim majority seats. Ramban returned to the assembly a Hindu candidate. As for as the remaining Jammu, Kathua, Reasi and Udhampur districts, the Congress could capture only 6 seats in 2008, five in Hindu-majority areas and one in Muslim-dominated area, as reported yesterday. The Congress could not open its account in Samba district. The NPP and the NC captured the 2 seats Samba district has. One was captured by the NPP and the other by the NC.
In other words, the Congress captured 8 seats from the Muslim-majority areas and 5 from the Hindu-majority areas. The National Conference (NC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) won an equal number of seats in Jammu province, three from Hindu-majority areas and five from the Muslim-majority areas. The NC had won 6 and the PDP 2. The remaining two seats - Kathua and Bishnah assembly constituencies --- had gone to the independent candidates.
The fact of the matter is that the political constituency of the BJP, the NPP and the Congress is the same and that the first two formations, if they so like, could capture the Congress's support-base. Why? Why because the Congress has become thoroughly unpopular because of its various acts of omission and commission, as also because of the fact that it has been making common cause with the NC and allowing the government to further harm the legitimate rights and interests of the people of Jammu province.
The people of Jammu province are fed up with the present dispensation of which the Congress is a part -- dispensation which is being roundly condemned by one and all across the state as the "most corrupt", "insensitive", and even "anti-democratic". In Jammu province, an overwhelming majority of population dismisses the present dispensation as out and out "Kashmir-centric" and "anti-Jammu". The BJP and the NPP can win over the people of Jammu province by identifying themselves with their sentiments and the cause they hold very dear. They can do so provided they are willing to work and show concrete results on the ground. Politically speaking, the Congress's loss in Jammu would be the gain of the BJP and the NPP. It will be seen if the BJP and the NPP would actually make optimum use of the prevailing political situation in Jammu province. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
