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| Prof Soz has the last laugh but Mustafa Kamal raises his first cry | | Mehboob files papers in Anantnag as NC forced to surrender Ladakh | |
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, Apr 8: Much like its compromises on the share in the Council of Ministers as also in the distribution of portfolios between the coalition partners, National Conference (NC) has finally surrendered its claim on the safe seat of Ladakh and decided to contest from the PDP stronghold of Anantnag under strong pressure from the Congress party. Eating a humble pie in the climax of two-week-long high drama last night, NC today harnessed its South Kashmir ace, Dr Mehboob Beg, who filed his nomination papers before the Returning Officer and Deputy Commissioner of Anantnag.
Dr Mehboob Beg, who had lost the Assembly election to the PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in his home segment of Anantnag proper with a big deficit in December last, filed his nomination papers in the afternoon today before DC Anantnag Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed. Though there was little enthusiasm and no smiles, he was accompanied by two of the NC MLCs, almost all of the recently defeated candidates of his party in Anantnag district besides some Congress leaders, including MLA Dooru Ghulam Ahmed Mir, Abdul Majeed Paddar and Muzaffar Parray.
Even as 26 nomination forms have been issued by the RO till late this afternoon, Dr Beg was among the three candidates who filed the first nomination papers for Anatnag-Pulwama constituency today. One Bashir Ahmad Khan filed his papers as the nominee of Rajya Nawjawan Shakti Party and Asif Jeelani as the candidate of All India Forward Block. Tomorrow is the last day for filing of nominations papers for the South Kashmir seat.
Well-placed political sources revealed to Early Times that after days of stand-off on the ruling coalition’s safest seat, NC leadership was forced by the Congress high command to surrender its claim on Ladakh late last night. Sources said that taking benefit of the old ‘communication gap’ between Dr Farooq Abdullah and the AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, J&KPCC President and the Union Minister of Water Resources, Prof Saif-ud-din Soz, prevailed upon his senior coalition partner with his argument of sharing all three sets of the six seats on 50:50 basis.
NC’s logic was based on the fact that, like all other seats, Ladakh and Anantnag should go to the party which has established maximum influence in a particular constituency in the “bench mark” Assembly elections last year. “Associate Members” included, NC has 3 MLAs in Leh-Kargil and only one in Anantnag-Pulwama. On the other hand, Congress has only MLA in Leh-Kargil and three (including one “associate member”) in Anantnag-Pulwama.
Sources said that senior Congress leaders, including Prof Soz, former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Tourism and MLA from Leh Nawang Rigzin Jora, emerged as the strong supporters of the senior party leader, P Namgyal, who they wished to contest from Ladakh. Namgyal has earlier served more than one terms in Parliament and his term in the J&K Legislative Council has ended last month. Many in the NC have strong apprehensions that the party’s decision of conceding Ladakh to Congress could terminate NC-LUTF alliance that had been forged by Dr Abdullah and former LBA chief, Thuptsan Chewwang, in the recent Assembly elections.
Skipping the tradition of announcing the names of its candidates to media, the NC leadership today directed a visibly reluctant Dr Beg to file his nomination papers in Anantnag today. Even after hours of filing his papers, most of the leaders, legislators and even Ministers of the coalition government appeared to be ignorant of today’s political development. Even the party’s ‘Core Group’ meeting was not held to confer mandate on the NC candidate.
However, a closed door meeting took place at the NC headquarters of Nawa-e-Subah after Dr Beg’s filing of papers at 1600 hours between Dr Abdullah and the party General Secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmed. Congress’ unyielding stand on Ladakh is understood to have been the subject of discussion. Sources said that the ‘Core Group’ meeting was likely to be held in the next two days to select the party’s candidates for Srinagar and Baramulla Lok Sabha seats as well as for the Assembly segments of Hazratbal and Sonwar.
With the Congress taking yet another price of accepting Mr Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister of the coalition government for the full term of six years, rank and file in the NC appeared to be upset over the coalition partner’s “obstinate stand” on Ladakh. Senior NC leader, Dr Mustafa Kamal, described it as “a brazen example of our coalition partner’s obduracy”. He told Early Times that his party had given “yet another one-sided sacrifice” by conceding the safest seat of Ladakh to Congress and taking the weakest one in Anantnag.
“They are grabbing the best and leaving the worst for us. This is in gross violation of the understanding reached with them at the time of formation of the government. Yeh hatdarmi aur khudgarzi ki bad tareen misaal hai”, Dr Kamal said in his sharp criticism to today’s developments on Ladakh and Anantnag. He pointed out that Congress had earlier kept both the sure seats for Mr Soz and Mr Azad but forced Dr Abdullah and Mohamnmad Shafi Uri to fall in the contest in the elections for Rajya Sabha seats.
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