Azad has the last laugh in J&K elections on Rajya Sabha
seats
Mufti
hardens stand after BJP’s reverses in J&K, Delhi
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
________
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].
END
https://www.authintmail.com/2015/kashmir/azad-re-elected-rajya-sabha-bjp-loses-further-ground-kashmir-politics-182239
