As Rahul Gandhi fails to reach Jammu, setback for Congress’s last-mile poll push

Sharma said AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was expected to visit Jammu on Saturday to address two rallies in Billawar and Bishnah respectively. These rallies will be her first in the J&K campaign run.

While it initially appeared that the Congress had managed to organise its Jammu cadre and structure its campaign, a combination of infighting — which at times pushed the release of names to the eve of the nomination deadline — a lacklustre campaign, and the BJP’s aggressive fightback has pushed the party into a corner.

Congress ally and National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah on Thursday expressed concern about the Jammu campaign. Noting that the campaign had not yet gained momentum five days before the third phase, Abdullah said the NC had “entrusted the Congress with a significant number of seats in Jammu”. But “unfortunately the Congress has not done as much in the plains of Jammu as we expected them to do”, he added.

After the second phase of polling on September 25, the Congress attempted to get its J&K house in order, with Rahul and Priyanka’s rallies being announced before the last stretch of the polls. Of the 40 Assembly seats going to polls in J&K in the final phase of elections on October 1, 24 are in Jammu’s Udhampur, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts. The Congress is contesting 21 of these constituencies.

There is a perception that the four districts in Jammu will hold the key to government formation in the Union Territory. In the 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP won all 25 seats in Jammu and went on to form the government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).