National Conference and Congress haveinked seat-sharing pact for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Congresshas left Srinagar seat for NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, while both theparties have decided to have “friendly fight” in Baramulla and Anantnagconstituencies.
NC has decided not to field any of itscandidates from two seats in Jammu region and has left the field open forCongress candidates. Many people were expecting that the Congress would do thesame in Kashmir rather than insisting on having a “friendly fight.”
It seems that NC and Congress have decidedto field their candidates from Baramulla and Anantnag after realizing that itwould be difficult for both the parties to convert the votes in each other’sfavour. This could help them at least divide the votes of their opponents. Sothey want to utilise this “friendly fight” for keeping their opponentsbusy.
In 2014 parliamentary polls both NC andCongress couldn’t even win a single seat in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Threeseats were won by BJP and three by PDP. This time around both the parties arebeing extra cautious and want to play safe. NC and Congress leaders have madeit clear that they want to give a tough fight to Bharatiya Janata Party and itsallies in the state and having a “friendly fight” seems to be one of theideas.
It’s amply clear that Peoples DemocraticParty led by Mehbooba Mufti has been left alone by both Congress and NC, whichlast year had offered support to the PDP to form government in Jammu andKashmir. The PDP has been left to fend on its own as NC and Congress don’t wantto burn their fingers by having an affiliation with the party, which isgrappling with number of issues.
Since the day BJP dumped PDP, the party(PDP) has been talking about unity among the Kashmir based parties and seemedvery keen on forming a “grand alliance” in the state. But NC and Congress havegone their way.
Speculations were rife that president of Awami Ithad Party and former MLA Langate Er Rasheed, who had contested 2014 Lok Sabha polls unsuccessfully from Baramulla constituency, has offered support to National Conference candidate in north Kashmir. Er Rasheed had got more than 20,000 votes in the last parliamentary elections.
But he (Er Rasheed) too has announced that he would contest from the Baramulla seat. This would make the contest more interesting. National Conference will have to work hard to regain its lost glory in north Kashmir, which was considered to be its citadel not long ago.
Amidst the poll clamour, battle lines have been drawn and the party (PDP) which in 2014 was riding high on the anti-incumbency wave is even finding it hard to select candidates, who can challenge the contestants of the other parties. At this point of time PDP leaders are telling people that entering into an alliance with BJP was a “big mistake” but there are no takers for their words.
South Kashmir, which was considered to be PDP’s bastion, is still the hot bed of militancy and PDP is finding it very difficult to ask the people to repose trust in the party again. PDP president and former chief minister of J&K Mehbooba Mufti has been making desperate attempts to reach out to voters in her erstwhile bastion but the response from the people has been lukewarm.
National Conference vice-president OmarAbdullah looks unnerved due to new faces emerging at the political arena ofKashmir. He recently accused New Delhi of creating new leaders to dividevotes in the Valley. His statement evoked sharp reaction from his politicalopponents and everyone tried to drive home a point that J&K is not OmarAbdullah’s “fiefdom.”
Congress too has got its share ofproblems, in 2014 the party was swept away by the Modi wave and this timearound the people, who are conducting pre-poll surveys, have already writtenoff the grand old party of the country.
A perception has been created that the airstrikes carried out by the BJP led government across the Line of Control (LoC)in the last week of February have worked in BJP’s favour and it would help theparty to once again regain the power and keep the Congress and its allies atbay for the next five years. Three Lok Sabha seats in Kashmir hardly matter forthe people sitting in Delhi but one thing is for sure that winning elections isnot going to be a cakewalk for any party.
(Javaid Malik is Senior Editor Greater Kashmir)