Azad has the last laugh in J&K elections on Rajya Sabha seats

Mufti hardens stand after BJP’s reverses in J&K, Delhi

 

https://www.authintmail.com/2015/kashmir/azad-re-elected-rajya-sabha-bjp-loses-further-ground-kashmir-politics-182239

 

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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JAMMU, Feb 7: Suffering its second successive setback after the failure of its ‘Mission 44 Plus’ in the recent Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP on Saturday was forced to play second fiddle to the bigger alliance partner PDP in the elections on four Rajya Sabha seats.

Even as both of the PDP’s young candidates---Mir Mohammad Fayaz and Nazir Ahmad Laway---were elected for the House of the Elders and both of the NC’s candidates---Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo and Nasir Aslam Wani---were defeated in the straight contest on the first two seats, BJP had to be content with the one-odd victory of its former State president Shamsher Singh Manhas. BJP’s advocate Chander Mohan Sharma got eliminated as the Congress candidate and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad polled the maximum, 30 votes, on one of the two seats combined in the third notification.

As per the procedure, two of the four vacant seats had been advertised through two separate notifications. Since the PDP and the BJP, which together had 53 votes besides the support of two MLAs of Peoples Conference and two independent members (Bakir Rizvi of Zanskar and Pawan Gupta of Udhampur), had forged an alliance, they got one each in the straight contest. However, one of the alliance’s votes seemed to have gone inadvertently to NOTA.

Leaders of the alliance, wishing anonymity, maintained that PC’s Kupwara MLA advocate Bashir Ahmad Dar was not inclined from day one to give his vote to PDP’s Mir Fayaz who had been defeated by the former in a bitterly fought Assembly election. As the PDP candidate polled only 56, BJP’s Mr Manhas got all the 57. The NC candidates on the two seats, Mr Kichloo and Mr Wani, got 29 each---15 from NC, 12 from Congress besides two votes of CPM’s Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami and the PDF MLA Hakeem Yasin. Independent MLA Engineer Rashid did not vote for the NC candidates.

The most crucial contest on the two seats of the third notification went in favour of the Congress candidate Mr Azad and the PDP candidate Nazir Ahmad Laway. Mr Azad got all 29 votes of the NC-Congress alliance besides Mr Rashid’s vote. Mr Laway polled 29---PDP’s 28 and one from the PDP’s associate member Mr Bakir. Since 29 of the PDP-BJP alliance’s 57 votes went to the PDP candidate Mr Laway, BJP’s Chander Mohammad Sharma got eliminated as he was left with total of 28 votes.

 

Azad’s victory after high drama

According to well-placed political sources, BJP had left no stone unturned to ensure the victory of all four of the PDP-BJP alliance candidates. Attempts to cause tactical absence of three members---two independent MLAs and one from Congress---failed as Mr Azad kept camping in Jammu. He reportedly sorted out “some misunderstandings” with a “disillusioned Congress MLA” and roped in both, Mr Hakeem and Mr Rashid, reminding one that Congress had not fielded any candidate against him in the recent Assembly elections and assuring another that he had no knowledge of the Centre’s decision of Afzal Guru’s execution. 

According to the knowledgeable sources, the angry MLA, who has taken a hard stand on Guru’s execution, was convinced that it was none other than Mr Azad who had got the implementation of the Delhi High Court judgment suspended for seven long years. Besides, Mr Azad, according to the sources, reminded Mr Rashid that it was none other than the former Congress Chief Minister who put a permanent end to the custodial killings when he got 11 J&K Police officials, including then SSP Ganderbal Hans Raj Parihar, arrested and prosecuted in the killing of five innocent civilians in fake encounters.

Sources said that Mr Rashid voted for Mr Azad only after he got an assurance that the Congress-NC alliance would struggle for “justice” to Guru’s family.

Mr Azad, as well as Congress party, had a high stake in the victory as the former Union Health Minister had lost last year’s Lok Sabha election---his first from the home State of J&K---from Udhampur-Doda seat to BJP’s Dr Jitendra Singh in the countrywide Modi Wave. Currently, a Rajya Sabha member from J&K, Mr Azad was his party’s face in the Parliament and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. His defeat on Saturday would have virtually ended his 45-year-long political career.

Setback for BJP

Having failed in its much-hyped ‘Mission 44 Plus’, BJP suffered a major setback in the defeat of its second candidate. Senior leaders, including the party chief Amit Shah, had repeatedly exuded confidence and claimed in many of their interviews to the media that the BJP was “fully confident” of the victory of all of the PDP-BJP alliance candidates. Insiders revealed that the State president and MP Jugal Kishore Sharma drew flak from a number of his colleagues for the “poor strategy”. Some of the BJP leaders even began to hold Mr Sharma responsible for fielding “weak candidates” in the Assembly segments of Bishna, Nagrota and Udhampur---all lost by the BJP.

Interestingly, immediately after the results came out and the Exit polls indicated BJP’s inferiority to the Aam Aadmi Party [AAP] in Saturday’s Assembly elections in Delhi, the PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed hardened his stand, claiming that his party would accept no compromise on certain fundamental issues including Article 370 and J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act [AFSPA].

 

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