Intro: Fearing BJP’s preparedness in achieving mission 44+, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s decision to not contest from family turf reflects his lack of confidence.
Omar Abdullah is not able to stand in front of the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) as he has nothing to show them. He has nothing based on which he can ask people to vote for him. In the last Assembly elections National Confe-rence (NC) was wiped out of Jammu region and this time it is going to lose the Valley, the central region in the politics of NC.
In an exclusive interview to News X on November 2, Omar stated, “I am not in denial mode. I am fighting the coming election all alone. I have no ally. My father (Farooq Abdullah) is unwell. He is not there to advise me. He will not campaign for the NC (Farooq Abdullah is in London for the treatment of his Kidney). The NC doesn’t have many star campaigners. I have to campaign for the party in all the 87 Assembly constituencies. My single-point agenda is to lead the party in the election. The Congress didn’t allow the coalition to settle fully. I faced many difficulties. The Congress created difficulties for me. I couldn’t achieve what I wanted to. I wanted revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Home Minister P Chidambaram backed me to the hilt on this issue, but the UPA Government buckled under BJP pressure and scuttled the move.”
Omar’s replies were full of excuses! He was replying as if the results of the Assembly elections have been declared and he is talking to media after facing defeat in the elections.
Omar is unnerved by the Modi wave and it got reflected when he said during the interview that, “J&K is a difficult State. It has three distinct regions. Jammu is Hindu majority. Ladakh is Buddhist majority. And I think the BJP can perform well both in Jammu and Ladakh. This time BJP has many star campaigners and the Modi wave has galvanised BJP in the State, and this could help BJP achieve its mission. I have also observed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is also helping the BJP. But since the voters are the chief determinants, the ball is in their court and, whether or not I get appreciated for my work as chief minister is in their hands.”
Other than being criticised, Omar should also be appreciated for his plain-speaking. He has openly accepted that “the Modi wave is there.” And that “BJP can achieve its 44+ mission”. Recently, he decided to quit the Ganderbal Assembly constituency which has been represented by the Abdullah family for three decades. Now he will fight from two constituencies of Kashmir region; Sonawar and Beerwah.
Ganderbal has been the traditional assembly constituency of the Abdullah family since the early 1980s, but Omar lost to Qazi Mohammad Afzal (PDP) from there in 2002. Six years later, he managed to win from Ganderbal. Political pundits of the state have termed this decision as “a last nail in the coffin of the NC”.
The new this time is that for the forthcoming Assembly elections, the Kashmir centric leadership of the Kashmir centric political party has accepted that J&K has parts other than the Valley.
It would be good to see how the people of the Valley, infused with superior complex for decades, take it! Reaction of the sectarian, non-inclusive and discriminatory forces of the Valley is awaited after Omar’s acceptance of the cultural and ethnical diversity of Jammu-Kashmir.
With all these developments, the demoralising effects on the cadre of incumbent NC can be clearly seen in party cadres and party supporters. Quite the way like Omar has sensed the Modi wave, the people of the region feel that the NC will face the biggest ever defeat in its history, in the coming Assembly elections.
-Arvind (The writer is a researcher at J&K Study Centre, New Delhi)
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