Arun Joshi
It is for the second time in the past 38 years that National Conference , the dominant regional party of Jammu and Kashmir and Congress , one of the national parties , have entered into a pre-poll alliance for the Assembly polls in the Union Territory with a sole objective to regain power that they lost 10 years ago when they were in a post-poll alliance .
On Thursday, National Conference president and five-time chief minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir announced that his party and Congress have finalized a pre-poll alliance for all the 90 Assembly seats going to polls in three-phases from September 18 to October 1. He said that they wanted to divisive forces , which was an unmistakable reference to BJP , the party that has posed a serious challenge to their hegemony of the past 70 years before the abrogation of Article 370 . They accuse BJP of creating communal and societal divisions , while the saffron party charges them with seeking to perpetuate dynastic rule which denies the real democracy to the masses in Jammu and Kashmir.
This alliance has generated hopes among their cadres that it may secure a majority and form the government after the election results are known on October 4. That is the calculation based on the number of assembly segments that National Conference had won during the Lok Sabha polls which concluded in June this year. NC had won two out of three seats in Kashmir , while Congress drew blank but the party closed the gap between itself and BJP that won two seats from Jammu region . BJP had not fielded even a single candidate in the Valley and the parties that it supported from behind-the -scene also lost .
It is imperative to recall the history of the pre-poll alliance of Congress and NC to understand the whole perspective as to how it could affect the political scene in Jammu and Kashmir with its national and international implications . It, in more than one ways, is a throwback to the pre-poll alliance on the eve of the 1987 Assembly polls .
In November 1986 , both Congress then under the leadership of late Rajiv Gandhi and National Conference under the leadership of Farooq Abdullah had forged a pre-poll alliance for the 1987 Assembly elections ,infamous for the rigging . The alleged cheating in the elections made the youth to lose faith in the Indian democracy , proved a flashpoint for more than three decade-long armed militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, which left thousands dead and lakhs displaced from their homes forever .
That time Congress was in power at the Centre and Farooq Abdullah had become Chief Minister in November 1986 after an unwritten Rajiv-Farooq accord . The backdrop was that the Farooq Abdullah government was dismissed by the then Governor Jagmohan on July 2, 1984 . That was the critical point in the history of Jammu and Kashmir when Congress had dislodged the elected government through covert means and helped in installing a government led by NC defectors by roping in a highly ambitious G M Shah, brother-in-law of Farooq Abdullah That goverment too was dismissed in March 1986 and the state came under Central rule for nearly eight months. And, then Farooq Abdullah was sworn-in as CM once again .
This time the pre-poll alliance has come in hugely different circumstances . Neither Congress is in power at the Centre nor NC in J&K . While Congress is in the role of Opposition at the Centre after the 2024 polls , National Conference is not in that role even, as there are no ruling parties nor opposition in the union territory of J&K, which is being ruled by the Centre through Lieutenant Governor who enjoys absolute powers with no accountability to any legislative body elected by the people.
The two parties’ alliance would be facing two type of challenges . One it will have to combat BJP which is having a backing of the abrogation of Article 370 which paved way for citizenship rights to the West Pakistan Refugees and Valmikis, Scheduled Tribe status to Paharis , and got the women married outside J&K their full rights – they can now inherit the property of their parents. Their children too are entitled tr these rights .
On the soil of Kashmir, too , National Conference is facing competition from BJP, PDP and Apni Party . This is going to be an ideological battle as well as for the political turf which he parties want to gain and retain after the elections . The alliance is faced with its challenges of the past as well as of future.
Disclaimer: This is the personal opinion of the author. The views expressed in this write-up have nothing to do with www.prameyanews.com.
