The end of the 66-month-old alliance between the Congress and the National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir has triggered a new ‘claim game’. With an eye on this year’s Assembly elections, every political party is confident of emerging winner.
Foremost among them is the People’s Democratic Party that established a lead in 41 out of 87 segments — 39 in Kashmir and two in Jammu — in the recent Lok Sabha elections. “Nobody is going to stop us from forming the next government independently as, by all indications, we are going to improve further in the Assembly elections. We are pretty confident of crossing the magic figure of 44 on our own. So we don’t need to form a pre-poll alliance with any political party,” party president Mehbooba Mufti told The Hindu .
Ms. Mufti views the two ruling parties’ decision to contest the Assembly elections against each other as their “internal matter.” She, nonetheless, asserted on the “ethics” of being together in a government and crossing the swords too. “Running the government together and crossing the swords too are just foolish tactics to befool the people. These will not succeed to hoodwink today’s voter,” she said.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the PDP bagged all three seats in Kashmir while the Bharatiya Janata Party won all three in Jammu and Ladakh. The NC and the Congress drew a blank.
NC’s Kashmir Province president Nasir Aslam Wani contended that the parliamentary and Assembly elections were “two completely different things.” He claimed that there was infighting within the PDP. “An army of retired tainted government officials had entered the PDP and taken ticket. It has exposed their leadership fully,” Mr. Wani said, claiming that the NC would get the simple majority of 44 seats “very comfortably.” “We don’t need any allies now,” he echoed NC general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar’s statement.
