Cracks are showing

Sharma’s strained relation with the Assembly Speaker is no secret. Party insiders say Sharma had not been happy with the high command over the treatment meted out to him over the last over two years, especially after Ghulam Nabi Azad took over as chief minister of the state. The increasing popularity of the Speaker—both within the organisation and among the masses, especially in Khour and Akhnoor constituencies—further fuelled his anger.

Tara Chand, party old-timers say, began as a block-level worker. The genial and approachable leader soon rose to the level of general secretary in the Pradesh Congress Committee. He contested his first assembly election from Khour, a seat that Sharma had to vacate after it was declared reserved constituency. Sharma shifted to neighbouring Akhnoor but lost the election that year. 1996 was a bad election for the Congress, when all its candidates, except Tara Chand, lost in Jammu district. Chand was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

During the 2002 assembly polls, Tara Chand got reelected from Khour and became the Assembly Speaker. This time, Sharma too was elected from Akhnoor and he was sworn in as a cabinet minister in the Congress-PDP coalition government. However, Sharma had to quit his cabinet berth when the party asked him to contest the Lok Sabha election from Jammu-Poonch constituency. Though he had managed to get his younger brother Sham Lal elected from his constituency, Akhnoor, he thought he was being shunted out of the cabinet, party sources said.

Much before his Akhnoor rally, Sharma had started giving vent to his feelings in private circles. However, things went wrong this time as some media persons recorded his remarks.

Now, nearly a month after these accusations, no one in the Congress wants to discuss them. However, only the polls will say whether various factions within the Congress have managed to bury the hatchet.