Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 12: The elections to 12th Legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir has broken all previous records of rebellion and defections from one political party to another with all four major political parties, which were in race for power suffering as well as benefiting from the defections.
Six former Ministers and 12 sitting legislators including eight MLAs and four MLCs have resigned from their parties and defected to other parties or having decided to contest the election as Independent candidates. This apart, a number of senior leaders of various political parties have also changed the sides on the eve of elections and more defections from some parties can’t be ruled out as Phase-I of polling will start on November 25 while last and fifth phase of voting was scheduled for December 20.
Former Chief Secretary and Power Minister in Ghulam Nabi Azad Government in 2008, BR Kundal has become the latest and prominent Congress leader to quit the party and jump into electoral battle from RS Pura seat as an Independent candidate. Kundal, who had quit as the Chief Secretary of the State in-service and was appointed Power Minister of J&K by then Chief Minister Azad, will announce his resignation from the Congress tomorrow. He is sitting member of the Legislative Council.
Another former Chief Secretary of J&K and ruling National Conference sitting MLC Sheikh Ghulam Rasool had recently resigned from the NC and joined PDP along with his son. A war of words had erupted between Chief Minister and NC president Omar Abdullah and Rasool with Omar describing latter as “deadwood” and the former bureaucrat retaliating the barb saying “the elections will tell the all”.
Major embarrassment for the Congress came when its veteran leader Mangat Ram Sharma resigned from the party to join the PDP. The decision compelled the Congress to give party mandate to Mangat Ram’s son, Rajnish Sharma (Mian) from Bani Assembly seat at the cost of 2002 MLA Prem Sagar Aziz even as another son of Mangat, Subash Sharma is PDP candidate for Kathua seat. Mangat has held almost every post in the Congress from MLA to MP, Minister to Speaker and Deputy Chief Minister.
The BJP, which was making maiden attempt for power in Jammu and Kashmir with Mission 44+, suffered maximum dissensions in its cadre with six of its sitting MLAs and several other senior leaders raising an open banner of revolt as soon as the party released its list of candidates for Jammu.
Of 6 sitting party MLAs, Baldev Sharma (Reasi) has already filed his nomination papers as Independent candidate from the same seat while Jagdish Raj Sapolia, MLA Basohli has joined Congress and the party has rewarded him with the mandate. Sapolia had, in fact, won Basohli Assembly seat in 1996 as Congress candidate but lost to Lal Singh (then Congress-Tiwari) nominee in 1996. Sapolia won the seat as BJP candidate in 2008. Another sitting BJP MLA from Hiranagar (Reserve) seat Durga Dass has joined the Nationalist Panthers Party (NPP) and has been given the party ticket.
BJP MLA from Bani, Master Lal Chand has already declared his intentions to contest the election as Independent candidate while party MLA from RS Pura, Prof Gharu Bhagat was also exploring options. BJP MLA from Raipur-Domana Bharat Bushan after initial revolt has cooled down.
Former BJP Legislature Party leader Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, who had sided with his son Anil Gupta’s JKDF after being expelled by the party along with six other MLAs, has returned to the party fold few days back. Gupta and six other party MLAs, all of whom have been denied mandate by the party, were involved in infamous cross-voting scam of Legislative Council elections in 2011.
The MLAs are not the only ones, other bigwigs in the BJP have also revolted against the party decision to deny them mandate. Pawan Gupta, the party strongman in Udhampur who had narrowly lost the 2008 Assembly elections, has already declared that he will contest the election as Independent candidate after being denied the BJP ticket and had even started canvassing. Most of the party cadre in Udhampur has sided with Gupta apart from Panchayat members.
Chaman Lal Kanaithia, another BJP veteran who had lost narrowly in 2008 to Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand in Chhamb, is also reportedly planning to contest as Independent candidate after he too was denied the mandate. Kabla Singh, a senior BJP leader, has resigned after he was not given the party ticket for Gool-Arnas seat and has joined the PDP.
Girdhari Lal, a prominent BJP leader from Ramban has retired from the contest and joined National Conference on being denied party mandate.
Sitting PDP MLA from Rajpora Syed Bashir, a former Minister, has also declared his intentions to join the fray as Independent candidate. The PDP had denied the mandate to two times party MLA at the cost of Dr Haseeb Drabu, former Jammu and Kashmir Bank chairman.
While BJP has lost several leaders to other parties or as Independents, it has gained many in the process. The first to change sides was two times MP and former Minister of Congress Choudhary Lal Singh, who has been fielded by the BJP from Basohli at the cost of its sitting MLA Jagdish Raj Sapolia.
National Conference sitting MLC and former Minister Ajatshatru Singh has also joined the BJP while former Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation and Congress leader Manmohan Choudhary has also quit the Congress and joined BJP. Talib Hussain, a former Minister and National Conference MP in 2000 Lok Sabha by-election from Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat is now BJP candidate from Rajouri Assembly seat while Abdul Gani Kohli, a PDP leader, is now BJP candidate from Kalakote seat. Prominent Youth Congress leader RS Pathania has also joined the BJP and has been fielded by the party from Ramnagar seat.
Two National Conference leaders-Tariq Hussain Keen and Kuldeep Dubey alias Mangu Shah are contesting the Assembly elections on BJP mandate from Inderwal (Kishtwar) and Gool-Arnas (Reasi) after resigning from their parties. Another former Minister in 2002-2008 Government, Thakur Puran Singh has been fielded by the BJP from Darhal seat of Rajouri, which he had won as an independent candidate in 2002.
Two Congress Ministers in 2002-2008 Government-Choudhary Gharu Ram, former MLA from Suchetgarh and Yogesh Sawhney, former MLA from Jammu East-have also announced that they will contest the elections from the constituencies they had won in 2002 after being denied the party mandate.
NPP sitting MLC Syed Rafiq Shah has also switched over to the PDP.
Former Minister and NC leader Govind Ram Sharma had quit NC and joined BJP on the eve of elections but on being denied the ticket by the party, his son is now planning to contest the election as an independent candidate.
Political observers were of the view that more leaders of different political parties could change sides during the ongoing elections as dissensions were simmering in various political parties.
Follow our WhatsApp channel