‘Choosing the lesser evil’: Congress allies defend its Udhampur-Doda choice

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose president Mehbooba Mufti as the chief minister in 2018 had got her then ally BJP to drop Lal Singh from her Cabinet over his stance in the case, is campaigning for him now.

The same goes for the National Conference (NC), whose leader Omar Abdullah only last year opposed Lal Singh’s bid to join Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in its J&K leg, warning the Congress that some people might try to use the Yatra to “whitewash their past”. “We have not forgotten the role played by those leaders who tried to save the (Kathua) rapists,’’ Omar had then told reporters.

Asked about the Congress fielding Lal Singh now, NC spokesperson Imran Dar said, “It is the Congress’s decision… Our stand is very clear. Like the Congress cannot dictate to us whom to field, we cannot question their candidate selection.’’

Dar added: “There are two evils and we have to choose the lesser evil for a bigger fight now. At present, we have to defeat the BJP.”

PDP spokesperson Firdous Tak also argued the same: “We have to see a larger and a broader objective at the moment… We are not supporting Lal Singh, but the idea of India, which we believe is the core ideology of the Congress and INDIA bloc.’’

However, while senior NC leaders, including ex-ministers, have been sharing the dais with Lal Singh, their PDP counterparts are staying away. “Only our junior leaders and ground-level workers are attending Lal Singh’s rallies,’’ a senior PDP leader said, admitting that the party is uncomfortable about “supporting the very person whom it had ousted from the Cabinet”.

He added: “Mehbooba Mufti has made it clear to the Congress high command that she will not share the stage, or seek votes for him directly during the elections.”

Asked about the Congress fielding a man whom the party had once criticised, J&K Congress chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma argued back: “It is for the BJP to clarify, as he (Lal Singh) along with one of its other ministers, Chander Parkash Ganga, went there (to the rally held by the kin of the accused) on its instructions.”

Sharma added: “Our stand was very clear. We wanted justice for the victim, and we did not politicise the issue… When the BJP found itself trapped in the matter, it sacrificed him (Lal Singh) to save its coalition government.”

Deepika Pushkar Nath, who had quit the Congress over its invite to Lal Singh to join Rahul’s Yatra, and who represented the Kathua victim as an advocate, accused J&K leaders of hypocrisy and double-standards.

The Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) of Ghulam Nabi Azad-led also criticised the Congress move as reflective of its “hypocrisy and fear of losing elections”. Its spokesperson Salman Nizami said Omar too was “betraying frustration in view of the NC’s shrinking base”.

“The DPAP was the first to name G M Saroori as its Udhampur nominee soon after the BJP announced the candidature of (Union Minister of State) Jitendra Singh,” Nizami said, arguing that the “DPAP is the only party fighting the BJP in J&K”. “The NC and PDP have joined hands with the Congress only to weaken and target Azad,” he said.

Jitendra Singh has won the past two times from Udhampur.

Originally belonging to the Congress, Lal Singh had defected to the BJP ahead of the 2014 Assembly polls and, on winning, was inducted as a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government. He had to step down after publicly supporting the Kathua accused.

Lal Singh had gone on to hold ‘Tiranga’ rallies attacking “Kashmiri politicians” including Mehbooba, accusing them of using the Crime Branch to “frame” the accused as part of “a conspiracy against Jammu”. He had also quit the BJP to set up a Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan, alleging discrimination against Dogras and advocating a separate Jammu state.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Lal Singh had contested simultaneously from Jammu and Udhampur, but got less than 20,000 votes in each, losing his security deposit. Even the voters in the panchyat to which the accused belong did not support Lal Singh.