CM to gear up party for 2014 Parliament, Assembly polls
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Apr 25: In less than 20 days of taking over as working president of National Conference, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has infused a fresh life in the ruling party by developing close rapport with not only the party leaders and office bearers but also with grass root workers in far off areas.
The four days tour of twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch by Omar, the first ever by a ruling party president in the recent times, was a clear indication that the Chief Minister after getting new responsibility of party’s working president, has decided to develop a close liaison with party’s leaders and workers at grass root by reaching their door steps.
“The fact that Omar was chairing provincial working committee meeting of the National Conference on April 10 at the party headquarters when no less than a person-Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had arrived in the town to review security scenario and other Confidence Building Measures (CBMs)-indicated serious approach of the Chief Minister towards the party”, the political observers opined.
It was on April 7 that National Conference president and Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah had handed over reign of affairs of the National Conference to his son and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at a function held at Sher-i-Kashmir Bhawan, the party headquarters in Jammu.
As Farooq Abdullah suffered from pneumonic and chest infections on April 16 and remained confined to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi for eight days, Omar had to attend him for a couple of days before returning to Jammu.
As soon as Farooq was discharged from the AIIMS on April 23, Omar started four days extensive tour of twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch the very next day i.e. April 24.
The Chief Minister during his four days tour would cover each and every constituency of the border districts. Yesterday, he had addressed public meetings, inter-acted with party workers and held Darbars at Kalakote and Nowshera while today he toured Rajouri and Darhal covering all four Assembly segments of Rajouri district. On April 26 and 27, he would be touring and addressing public meetings in Poonch district including Poonch, Mandi, Chandak and Surankote covering all three Assembly segments of the district including Mendhar, Surankote and Poonch.
Sources in the National Conference said Omar would be touring all districts of the State in due course of time to have personal interaction with party leaders, office bearers, legislators and, above all, grass root workers to make the party strong ahead of Parliament and Assembly elections.
The State would be having Parliament and Assembly elections in 2014. While Lok Sabha elections were scheduled to be held in March-April 2014, the Assembly polls were due in November-December 2014 as the State Assembly has a term of six years as against five years term of the Parliament.
Political observers were of the view that Dr Farooq Abdullah has done well by handing over the party affairs to the young Chief Minister as he remained busy with the Union Ministry and was not finding enough time to devote to the party. They said it was now only a matter of the time when Omar will be made full fledged party president of the National Conference to gear up the party ahead of 2014 Parliament and Assembly elections.
Not only Dr Farooq Abdullah was busy in New Delhi as the Union Minister, National Conference general secretary Sheikh Nazir Ahmed was also ailing for the past quite sometime.
“The new appointments were aimed at rejuvenating the party cadre across the State by ensuring close co-ordination of top brass with the grass root workers. The Chief Minister had started the task and other leaders and Ministers were being asked to follow”, party sources said.
They pointed out that just like Congress, the National Conference Ministers have also virtually confined themselves to their Assembly segments and were not devoting time to other parts of the State to strengthen the party rank and file.
With Omar Abdullah now himself leading from the front with four days tour of remote and border areas of Rajouri and Poonch districts, the party sources said the Ministers would be left with no option but to opt for tours of different parts of the State considering themselves as Ministers of entire State and not of their own segments.
Party sources pointed out that it was also for the first time that National Conference leaders including Political Advisor to Chief Minister, Devender Singh Rana held a public meeting at Ramnagar, a strong bastion of Nationalist Panthers Party (NPP), whose leader and former Minister, Harshdev Singh has been winning the seat for three consecutive terms with handsome margins.
Sources said Omar has asked the National Conference Ministers, legislators, office bearers and other party functionaries to tour all parts of the State including the segments, where the party has very little presence to strengthen party base in the entire State.
The party leaders including Omar himself planned to tour extensively the entire Kashmir valley and Ladakh region during the summer including the Assembly segments held by the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The PDP held 21 Assembly segments in the State including 19 in the Valley and two in Jammu region (Darhal in Rajouri district and Mendhar in Poonch district).
It may be mentioned here that Omar Abdullah had earlier also been designated as National Conference president after the party’s defeat in 2002 Assembly elections while Farooq Abdullah was then named as party patron. However, after Omar took over as Chief Minister on January 5, 2009 as head of National Conference-Congress coalition Government, Farooq Abdullah had again taken over as the party president.
Party sources admitted that it would be a tough task for Omar Abdullah to carry on with twin responsibilities as the Chief Minister and the party’s working president but they hoped that he would fulfill his task.
Along with Omar as party working president, the National Conference leadership had also appointed Dr Sheikh Mustafa Kamaal, former Minister, as additional general secretary of the party, Sajjad Ahmed Kitchloo, two time MLA from Kishtwar as spokesman for Jammu, Tanvir Sadiq as spokesman for Kashmir and Mohammad Shaffi Uri, Rajya Sabha MP as chief spokesperson.
In Kashmir valley, the National Conference party leaders, activists and cadres were upbeat over the recent party decision to appoint Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as the working president of the party. They believed that the decision would go a long way in establishing rapport with the grass-root level workers and address their genuine concerns.
Talking to Excelsior, National Conference veteran and the party legislator from Handwara, Chaudhary Mohammad Ramzan said that since the party president, Dr. Farooq Abdullah is busy in discharging his obligations as the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, the decision to appoint Omar as the working president was quite in tune with the future of the party.
“The decision to appoint Omar as the working president is an important one. It is aimed at reaching out to the workers at the ground level. Since Dr Farooq Abdullah had very less time to address the party issues it was imperative to find out an alternative and what better than Omar. This augurs well for the future of the party as the Chief Minister is young and has the capability as well as capacity to lead from both front as the head of State and as the party president,” Mr Ramzan said.
The recently appointed party spokesman for Kashmir, Tanvir Sadiq said that he along with the party additional general secretary, Dr. Sheikh Mustafa Kamal would provide feedback to the working president about the issues confronting the party workers at the ground level. He too put his weight behind the Chief Minister for better performance at the party level saying that youth would push NC towards a better position in the future.
Kashmir province president of the party, Ali Mohammad Dar said that the decision to appoint Omar as the working president was taken to entrust party responsibilities on the shoulders of the youngest Chief Minister of the State. He said since Omar is in constant touch with the party workers at the ground level it won’t be difficult for him to discharge his obligations as the working president of the party.
Follow our WhatsApp channel