Jammu: The individual performance of the Congress in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls has hit an all-time low as only one of its 29 candidates managed to win in the Jammu region, while its prominent leaders including two working presidents lost the elections.
The Congress, however, said the result in Jammu region was not in accordance with the party’s expectations and a detailed feedback would be sought on the debacle.
The Congress was fighting the elections in a pre-poll alliance with National Conference (NC) and had fielded 32 candidates, mostly in Jammu region, compared to 51 by the regional party. Additionally, the CPI(M) and the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) have each been allocated one seat while both the Congress and NC had a ‘friendly contest’ on five seats.
In the Jammu region, the Congress has managed to win only the Rajouri seat as against a total of five seats in 2014. The Congress’s Iftikar Ahmed defeated his nearest rival, BJP’s Vibodh Gupta, by a margin of 1,404 votes after securing 28,923 votes.
The NC did not field any candidate from the constituency according to the seat sharing agreement.
However, the Congress managed to win five seats in Kashmir where Pradesh Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra won from Central Shalteng, AICC general secretary and former minister G A Mir from Dooru, Irfan Hafiz Lone from Wagoora-Kreeri, former minister Peerzada Mohammad Syed from Anantnag and former MLA Nizam-uddin Bhat in Bandipora.
The performance of the Congress leaders in the Jammu region can be gauged from the fact that most of its senior leaders, including two working presidents, a former Pradesh Congress president and several ministers were humbled by the BJP rivals.
Prominent among those who have lost the elections include working president and former deputy chief minister Tara Chand (Chhamb), working president and former minister Raman Bhalla (R S Pura), Pradesh Congress Committee president and former minister Vikar Rasool Wani (Banihal), two-time former MP Choudhary Lal Singh (Basohli), former ministers Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar), Yogesh Sawhney (Jammu East), Mula Ram (Marh) and Mohd Shabir Khan (Thanamandi).
Congress, meanwhile, expressed gratitude to the people for a decisive mandate in favour of NC-Congress coalition to keep BJP out of power.
J-K Congress chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma congratulated the people for their clear verdict and said “the hollow claims of BJP have been exposed by the people who have given a loud message that they are not satisfied with the policies and actions of the saffron party for the past 10 years.”
The Congress leader said that there was large scale resentment against BJP in Jammu region too over record unemployment, price rise, huge taxations of various sorts but the results do not match the ground situation.
“The results in Jammu region are not up to our expectations and surprisingly against ground situation, for which a detailed feedback shall be sought from the party workers,” he said.
He claimed that the BJP tried to create a “fake and negative” narrative in Jammu against Congress-NC coalition while it hobnobbed with separatist forces in the valley and was desperate for gaining power by hook and crook but people defeated its designs.
“It was ready to defeat the mandate of the people through backdoor nominations of five MLAs but failed to succeed in its mission due to lack of basic numbers to manipulate,” Sharma said.
He added that that if the Lieutenant Governor nominated MLAs without the recommendations of the new council of ministers, that would be “wrong and against law”.
