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| Non-existent Panthers contesting corporation elections in Delhi | | Fight for Jammu Pradesh, Bhim-style | |
NEHA
JAMMU, Mar 16: The people of Jammu and Kashmir will go to the polls in April this year to elect new corporations and other urban local-bodies. All political parties in the state are busy these days working out strategies to win the civic elections. There are unconfirmed reports that the Congress and NC are likely to contest the coming elections jointly. It can happen considering the prevailing political scenario, which is not quite favourable for them. The PDP will, it appears, go it alone. The BJP is unlikely to enter into pre-poll alliance with any political group, not even the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP). Similarly, the JKNPP is unlikely to enter into pre-poll alliance with any political formation, not even the PDP, notwithstanding the fact that the relations between the PDP and JKNPP leaders are very cordial.
One cannot really predict the poll outcome at this point in time. But one can surely say that the JKNPP would not be able to fight the elections in the way it should. For, the chairman of the party would be busy in New Delhi where his party is contesting the Municipal Corporation elections. According to reports, he has fielded candidates in all the corporation wards. That his party would not win a single seat is a foregone conclusion. The JKNPP is non-existent in Delhi. But Bhim Singh is Bhim Singh. One can expect anything from him.
The point is that the JKNPP leadership, which has his support-base limited only to a few assembly constituencies in Jammu province, is frittering away time and energy in an area where it has no say whatsoever. The JKNP leadership has failed to expand its constituency in what it calls Jammu Pradesh despite the fact that it is an old party and that its stated objective was empowerment of the people of this neglected region. It has failed because it has never been consistent. Nor has it ever tried to translate its words into an action.
For example, in January 2011, Bhim Singh came out with what he called Agenda 2011, but did nothing to implement it. The Agenda 2011 had provided for reorganisation of the state and separate chief minister, separate assembly, separate budget and separate recruitment agencies for Jammu Pradesh. It was an impressive agenda. In January this year also, the JKNPP came out with the same agenda, styled Agenda 2012, but there appears nothing on the ground which could even remotely suggest that Bhim Singh and other JKNPP leaders are really committed to what they solemnly promised in 201 and January this year. It was hoped that Bhim Singh would camp in Jammu and tour Jammu Pradesh to induce people to join him and his crusade, but it has not happened because his priorities are many. Had he and other senior party leaders focused their attention on Jammu Pradesh as a whole, things today would have been quite different for them; they would have become a force to reckon with in the state politics.
There is still time for Bhim Singh and his colleagues in the party to look beyond Ramnagar, Udhampur and Samba assembly constituencies so that they are able to expand their support-base. They can change the political scene of Jammu province because their political agenda can be put in the political market for sale. It is so attractive. The BJP has no Jammu-specific agenda. The Congress has no Jammu-specific agenda. In fact, the Congress’s agenda is Kashmir-centric. The JKNPP has. The coming civic elections are an opportunity for the JKNPP leadership to mobilise public opinion in Jammu Pradesh in its favour. Will it? It should. Besides, it should also explore the possibility of entering into pre-poll alliance with the BJP. Pre-poll alliance between these two formations would help both as well as people of Jammu Pradesh.
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