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| LAHDC elections in Leh, litmus test for Cong, BJP | | | Early Times Report
jammu, Sept 16: Leh district of Ladakh region is these days witnessing hectic political activities. The reason is the scheduled election to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh. Elections would be held in October. The Congress, which controls the LAHDC, is working overtime to retain control over it by repeating its 2010 performance. It had won 21 of the 26 seats in 2010.
The BJP, which scored a historic victory in the Lok Sabha elections by capturing the lone Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, but drew a blank in the Assembly elections, has also been putting in all efforts to dislodge the Congress from the LAHDC. In 2010, the BJP had won four seats and the remaining 26th seat was won by an independent candidate. There are reports that the BJP could forge pre-poll alliance with the PDP and contest the upcoming elections jointly. However, BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh claims that the BJP would form the council in Leh on its own. For the BJP, the council elections are very important. Its actual performance would indicate the direction in which the political wind is blowing in the Jammu and Ladakh regions. The BJP has no presence in the Valley, notwithstanding is claim that it has more than two lakh members in Kashmir. However, reports emanating from Ladakh do not suggest that the BJP is on a strong wicket.
The NC, which is the third important player, is also not legging behind. Its working president Omar Abdullah has toured the district for three days to assess the prevailing situation there and sense the public mood. One thing, however, looks certain. The NC will surely field its candidates. Significantly, the NC, like the BJP, is not popular in the trans-Himalayan district because of its Kashmir-centric and communal policies, hostile attitude towards India and insistence on autonomy. More importantly, the NC has been, like the PDP, a bitter critic of the Ladakhis' demand seeking Union territory status for their region. The NC, like the PDP and all the Kashmir-based separatist groups, believe that the grant of UT status would lead to the disintegration of the State and also hurt the Kashmiri Muslim psyche.
Determined as the Congress is to recapture the LAHDC, Leh, its leaders have started working in right earnest. And, one of the prominent Congress leaders who is leading the party from the front is former Cabinet Minister Nawang Rigzin Jora. But more than that, he has started targeting the BJP, saying he would expose it and its double-speak. Only a couple of days ago, he accused the BJP of misleading the people of Ladakh during the Assembly election and told Early Times that the "BJP by way of communal politics befooled Jammu people when Assembly elections were held last year in the name of scrapping Article 370 and development which they (Jammu people) are yet to see".
The Congress leader only exhibited his ignorance by saying that the BJP had contested the last Assembly elections on such planks as Article 370. Article 370 was not part of its election campaign. It is, of course, true that the BJP got prepared and printed election manifesto that included a reference to Article 370, but it didn't release it following the opposition from Hina Bhat of Kashmir. Hina Bhat had threatened that she would pick up gun and, like other Kashmiris, turn a militant in case the BJP raised the issue of Article 370 during the election campaign or make it part of the election manifesto. She had told several national news channels that she knew that the BJP would not include Article 370 in its manifesto. The BJP top leaders, including Amit Shah, Ram Lal, Ram Madhav and so on honoured the words of Hina Bhat and decided to throw the election manifesto into dustbin. There were reports that the so-called nationalist RSS had also supported the decision of the BJP to not release election manifesto. Instead, the BJP came out with what it called Vision Document which didn't say a word on Article 370.
So, to say that the BJP raised the issue of Article 370 during the election campaign would be only a tale of travesty. Jora should realize that it is not the same BJP he used to deal with or talk about; it's a different BJP which is not committed to any ideology and whose single-point agenda is to remain in power at whatever cost. It is more pseudo-secular than any other political party or political formation has been. In fact, it is ultra secular. |
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