NC leaders meet to scan ‘ouster’ at Sheikh’s grave

Party president and Union Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah made a quick exit after offering the customary fateh khwani for his grandfather and grandmother at the Hazratbal shrine, overlooking the Dal Lake.

Before leaving, Omar told the small gathering, of about 100 loyalists, that ‘‘all was not lost’’. He asked the party workers to stay put as former chief minister Farooq Abdullah was expected any moment at the heavily-guarded tomb. Omar also listened to a complaint on power cuts and promised to talk to the chief engineer concerned by evening. Some burqa-clad women redressal-seekers had also lined up for a quick audience.

After the party president left, some former NC ministers and legislators were seen trying to answer people’s queries on what hit the party’s fortunes this year.

‘‘Who did it? It was you (people). Why ask questions now,’’ former vice-chairman of Muslim Auqaf Trust and a trusted aide of the Sheikh family, G.N. Kochak, told an elderly gentleman who had earlier tried to speak to Omar.

The loyalist, incidentally, was from the native town of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Bijbehera, where Abdul Rehman Veeri of PDP has defeated NC candidate Abdul Ghani Veeri by a heavy margin.

‘‘We tried our best but the tide was against us,’’ the bespectacled man said.

‘‘Where are our loyalists. Where are our workers who used to swear by the name of Sheikh,’’ Kochak asked angrily, pointing to the marble tomb of the Sheikh, where all NCC poll campaigns begin after an oath-taking ceremony. The patriarch’s personality and speeches had always been a trump card for the party. But even his life-size posters failed to turn around the fortunes this year.