AS THE Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections enter their third and final stretch, it has been a mixed bag for the National Conference-Congress campaign as an alliance. While the two parties managed to thrash out an arrangement for all but five of the 90 seats, kept rebellions to the minimum, and the alliance remains the frontrunner, top leaders of the NC and Congress were rarely seen together on the same platform. As per the arrangement worked out by the NC-Congress after talks that lasted till the last minute, the NC got 51 seats (34 of these in Kashmir) and the Congress 32 (29 of these in Jammu), with five seats to see friendly contests. Apart from this, one constituency each was left for smaller partners CPI(M) and J&K Panthers Party. In Kashmir, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has held three public meetings so far – in Anantnag, Srinagar and Sopore – with enthusiastic participation. He has also held meetings in Jammu and more are scheduled as campaigning for the last phase is still ongoing. While NC president Farooq Abdullah attended Gandhi’s public meeting in Anantnag and in Surankote in Jammu, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah has not been seen at any Congress events. Congress leaders have not been present at the NC’s election rallies either. On Wednesday, in Sopore – the only seat in Kashmir where the Congress and NC are in a friendly fight – Gandhi and Omar campaigned for their respective party candidates in different areas. Omar’s absence at Congress events is consistent with his long-held position that alliances do not necessarily work on the ground since the cadre “hesitates” to transfer their vote. However, at his rallies, Gandhi has been asking people to vote not just for the Congress but for “INDIA bloc candidates”, so that the next government in J&K is an INDIA government. Omar’s hesitation could also do with the fact that the NC is the only mainstream cadre-based party in J&K, and can expect its voters to go by what party leaders tell them. The same may not happen in reverse with Congress voters. The two parties have also handled their rebels differently. On September 13, the Congress issued show-cause notices to several party leaders contesting as Independents from seats allotted to the NC, calling their move a “breach of alliance unity” and “against the alliance spirit”. The leaders who faced action included former Srinagar district Congress president Imtiyaz Khan, who has entered the race from the Eidgah constituency in Srinagar against NC veteran leader Mubarak Gul; and Waseem Shala, contesting from Khanyar in Srinagar, where NC general secretary and former Cabinet minister Ali Mohammad Sagar is the alliance candidate. Another Congress leader, Asif Ahmed Beigh, is contesting from Habbakadal as an Independent, taking on senior NC leader Shamim Firdous. However, while there are NC rebels too who ignored party diktat and are in the race from alliance seats as Independents, no action is known to have been taken against them. These NC leaders include Irfan Shah, who is contesting from Central Shalteng, where the alliance ticket went to Congress J&K chief Tariq Hameed Karra; and Ghulam Nabi Bhat, who is fighting from Tral, where Congress leader Surinder Singh Channi is the alliance nominee. After the announcement of the pre-poll alliance, NC provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani had said that the seat-sharing had cost the party some seats as it had lined up candidates for all 90. In terms of poll message, the NC and Congress were anyway unlikely to be on the same page. While both parties are “educating” voters on the need for the next government to have a clear majority, and demanding statehood, the Congress is quiet on the NC’s push for the restoration of Article 370. Asked about this, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal earlier said that an NC-Congress coalition government would work as per a common minimum programme. While admitting that there were instances on both sides of rebels in the race, Karra said this was not unnatural. Speaking to The Indian Express, he said: “Alliances always have inherent contradictions, compromises have to be made and it’s very natural for some workers to feel shaky. However, the NC Congress alliance is doing well on the ground… The relationship is firm.”
