Rustam
JAMMU, May 10: Just a day after senior Congress leader and Cabinet Minister Taj Mohi-ud-Din made a starling revelation that at least 50 per cent Congress and NC voters voted for PDP candidate for the Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha seat Muzaffar Hussain Baig and that all this happened because of senior NC leader and Member of Rajya Sabha Mohammad Safi Uri's son's activities, the NC leader hit back and blamed Taj for what happened during the election on May 7. "He (Taj) is trying to cover-up his failures of not having fulfilled his commitment to make Congress cadres vote for the coalition candidate Sharif-ud-Din Shariq. Instead of blaming NC workers, he should tell, how 12 Panchayat representatives affiliated with the Congress met with PDP leader Muzaffar Hussain Baig pledging their support to him. He should tell how his close associates in Uri worked for Salam-ud-Din Bajad, Peoples Conference candidate from Baramulla constituency," Shafi Uri was quoted as saying on Friday. Shafi Uri further said that "Rafiq Balote, a prominent Gujjar leader and Sarpanch of Garkote village in Uri who is a close associate of Taj openly worked for Bajad, and added that "besides Balote, Congress Sarpanchs of Zehanpora, Hakapalhi, Ijara, Pahlipora, Limber B, Bimyar, Nowshera A&B, Barnate, Trikanjan, Buniyar, Zamoorpattan, Salamabad, Chulan, Kalsan, Dachi, Sultan Daki, Shahdara, Nowarunda, Kalgaie, Jabla, Niloosa, Lacipora A& B, Miaan, Bijhama, Buniyar, Mohra all worked and voted for PDP and PC candidate.
Not only this. Shafi Uri further disclosed that "besides Congress block president of Buniyar Abdul Hamid, Halqa presidents of Dawaran, Bagna, Salamabad, Dachina, Pahlipora, Manzgama, Zehanpora, Nowshera, Buniyar, Zamboorpattan, Sultan Daki, Miarian, Kamalkote, Nowarunda, Gawallata, Dardkote, Kalgaie, Salamabad Nambal and Garkote openly supported PDP and PC candidates and voted for them". "This is a total betrayal by Congress workers in Uri against the commitment Taj had made with the NC and Congress leadership at Baramulla prior to the elections. Taj had committed that his workers will give a lead to the coalition candidate wherever they have their pockets (of influence) but he even failed to get 1000 people in a public rally where addressed by Omar Abdullah," Shafi Uri said while attacking Taj. He even went to the extent of saying that "it is because of the anti-incumbency against Taj that Congress voters didn't vote for coalition candidate".
Interestingly, another Minister in the Omar Abdullah-led coalition Government Ghulam Hassan Mir had on Friday stated that it was not possible for him to transfer the Democratic Party Nationalist voters, cadres and supporters in favour of the NC candidate. Mir heads the Democratic Party Nationalist.
The manner in which Shafi Uri blamed and attacked Taj and several local Congress leaders, including block and halqa president, was an indication that the ground for the NC candidate in the constituency under reference is quite slippery and that there is the possibility of the PDP candidate making it to the Lok Sabha. In fact, reports emanating from Srinagar suggest that all the three NC candidates, including Farooq Abdullah, the party president, Mehboob Beg and Shariq, are not confident of their victory and that the PDP candidates might emerge victorious in all the three Lok Sabha constituencies. It bears recalling that just on the eve of polls in the Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency, NC additional general secretary and Omar Abdullah's uncle Mustafa Kamaal had in an interview to a local news gathering agency had said that the Congress voters would vote for the PDP candidate in Baramulla-Kupwara Lok Sabha constituency the way the Congress voters did in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. Significantly, Farooq Abdullah the very next day countered his brother's charge and asserted that the Congress worked for the success of Mehboob Beg and it would do the same for Shariq. Interestingly, Mehboob Beg also countered Mustafa Kamaal a day after Farooq Abdullah gave a clean chit to the Congress. All this shows that all is not well with the coalition as well as with the NC itself. |
