Congress

Ghulam Nabi Azad, hitherto known as the veteran leader of Congress for most of his 50-year-association with the grand old party of Indian politics, is attempting to redraw political map of the country by launching a new party in the already crowded political space in Jammu and Kashmir. There is expectation that Azad will bring something new with his new -platform for the people of the erstwhile state, as also for the rest of the country, as the political spectrum is divided between the aggressive nationalism of the ruling BJP and opposition‘s challenge to it, though fragmented. That Azad has made Jammu and Kashmir the place from where he proposes to launch his new party, has more than one reason. He is a very well known face, hailing from here, and having national recognition. This is entirely due to the role he played in national politics as Congress general secretary in charge of many states and the union territories as also as his long tenure in the union cabinet besides seven years as leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha since 2013. Jammu and Kashmir is rich in symbolism for the nation, particularly after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. The Indian nation, under the BJP rule, has come to believe that everything has been set right by the government with the constitutional changes that ended the special status, exclusive rights and privileges of the people of the erstwhile state, and somewhere down the line nation, barring few exceptions, is also celebrating bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories of Ladakh and J&K. Within Jammu and Kashmir, too, there are elements having similar views as majority in the rest of the country that the closure of the special status of J&K has done justice to each and every section, and some of these voices are now calling for separate statehood for the Hindu-majority Jammu region, and keeping Kashmir as union territory, permanently under the rule of Delhi. Another reason for Azad to jump into J&K is that he has a legacy of initiating development as his core political agenda during his tenure as Chief Minister ( from 2005-2008). The development has caught imagination of the people of the region, who feel that the development alone can deliver them out of the morass in which they are caught at the moment. The development works being done by the UT administration under Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha have opened their eyes to benefits that infrastructural development, connected to human development, can deliver. But the absence of the political connect is making them to realise importance of the political content. Azad is banking on this sentiment of the people. He, however, has to contend with certain unpalatable facts of the moment, first, he is out of Congress after his resignation from the party, announced on August 26, 2022, and secondly his development agenda is connected to his less than three years as Chief Minister when Congress was in power at the Centre, and the party had substantial number of seats ( 21 in the House of 87). Now both these fields are blank. Only two among the former lawmakers, who have joined his bandwagon in J&K, were elected in 2014 Assembly polls. the party, in all had only 12 seats in the now dissolved Assembly of the erstwhile state. The political equations and landscape have changed. Azad will have to contend with that. He would have also to allay all the doubts cast on his resignation from Congress, as some of his critics have accused of having taken this step at the behest of BJP, the party with which he had become cozy following his differences with the Congress leadership. His entry into Jammu and Kashmir , despite his secular image and credentials, is seen as aimed at dividing the Muslim votes in the areas, especially Chenab Valley and Pir Panjal region of Jammu division Likewise his influence in Jammu’s plains where Hindus are in majority would cut into the votes that would normally be claimed by National Conference, Congress, PDP and other outfits, that would again, it is being stated, will help BJP. Against this backdrop, Azad will have to announce and later execute in a delicate manner, on September 4, when he would be arriving in Jammu. That is his test. As a veteran, he knows what to do, but the changed landscape is an additional challenge for him.

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