JAMMU: They won’t leave it to voters but decide by themselves as to who shall rule the State of Jammu and Kashmir. With royal era gone, the new Avatars of democratic Maharajas treat it their birth right to rule the State. They come up with new formulas and theories to retain their inheritance over the State comprising Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, as if it is their fiefdom.
NC-Congress coalition has set a new political ethics by fighting on streets and ruling from the Secretariat
In the midst of polling for the next Legislative Assembly, the self-proclaimed leaders are engaged in combinations and permutations. After having humbled in the Lok Sabha elections seven months ago, the Congress does not appear to be in a budging mood. Pradesh Congress President Saif-ud-Din Soz has raised yet another rant after protracted silence of months that Congress will emerge as a single largest party when votes will unfold the public preference on 23rd December.
Saif-ud-Din Soz is elated over the Congress being ‘vibrant’ in all the three regions and surprised to see “the party as a heartwarming situation”. He does not feel any hesitation in exuding confidence that Congress shall have a largest presence in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. However, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is not impressed. He lashes out at once NC loyalist and now Congress chief for nurturing ambitions and says that “Soz’s dream to become a Chief Minister will never be fulfilled. When we formed the government in coalition with the Congress we didn’t beg them for it, rather it was Congress which came to us. They wanted plum portfolios for supporting the government which they took. Today I have to answer for the mistakes committed by the Congress ministers. Due to their mistakes NC also suffered”. This is in reaction to what Congresswallas from Sonia Gandhi to Abdul Gani Vakil and Rahul Gandhi to Salman Anees Soz keep saying that the ‘national party’ suffered due to follies of National Conference. The ‘Tu Tu Mein Mein’ seems to be never ending as the two coalition partners are comforting each other like a nagging couple. They have set a new political ethics of fighting in the streets and ruling from the Secretariat. This must be unprecedented in the democratic history of India. How this government has functioned during the past six years is anybody’s guess. It may have remained credited with any significant contribution on ground but the people of Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed three parallel contenders for the post of Chief Minister-the incumbent one besides Ghulam Nabi Azad and Saif-ud-Din Soz. However, Omar Abdullah had the ultimate laugh.
Peoples Democratic Party has since proclaimed to be the next claimant of Rajgadhi in Srinagar and Jammu. The party has even prioritised the tasks ahead of it in next six years with priority to achieving the Self- Rule for Jammu and Kashmir that makes the State a nation within a nation. Mufti Mohammed Sayeed is a natural contender for the Chief Ministership or Premiership if Self-Rule doctrine successfully rolls out.
Embarked on a 44+ mission, Bharatiya Janata Party is not unrelenting notwithstanding its zero-base in the Kashmir Valley. However, the saffron brigade has found a Chief Minister in ex-separatist Sajjad Lone, who too has shunned his shyness to the proposition despite his Peoples Conference contesting from meager 12 seats out of 87. Such is the dilemma within BJP that its leaders are brazenly talking in twin-tunes. On the one hand they are staking their claim to the government formation and on the other, they talk about coalitions. The party’s point man Ram Madhav feels the talk of Hindu Chief Minister as a brain child of Congress and says anyone elected by the MLAs will wear the mantle. The ostensible Man-Friday is none other than Sajjad Lone.
With this baggage on their shoulders, every major political player in Jammu and Kashmir has carved out a Chief Minister. Anybody among voters listening, please!
