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ELECTIONS '96

Father, son and the holy votes

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Jammu and Kashmir's most prestigious parliamentary constituency, Srinagar goes to polls on February 28. Spread over fifteen assembly segments with a total electorate of seven 7,86,000 votes, this constituency is witnessing the emergence of the third generation of the Sheikh dynasty on the state's political horizon.

Twentyseven year old Omar Abdullah, son of Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah is testing the political waters here as the National Conference's candidate. The NC is putting all its influence to ensure that Omar's entry into the twelfth Lok Sabha takes place with a sizeable margin, but trying to thwart just such a possibility the Congress has fielded Aga Syed Mehdi, a local Shia leader who is believed to wield some influence among his community in Badgam and Srinagar segments.

Although the contest here is multi-cornered, with six more contestants in the fray including Abdul Rashid kabli of the BJP and two independents, the main contest here will be a straight affair between the NC and the Congress.

"My son will win the election from Srinagar with a huge majority," Abdullah told this correspondent here.

In the past Srinagar has been represented both by Omar's grandmother Begum Akbar Jahan and his father Dr Farooq Abdullah, and the family is using all its punch to usher in its third generation into politics. Strangely, while the NC campaign began here with Omar being projected as the 'leader of the youth', this strategy has now been changed after it failed to strike the right chord with the Kashmiri youth who continue to view Omar as 'an alien from the ruling party'. The propaganda thrust is now shifted to garner support for Omar from among the traditional supporters of the NC.

The Congress candidate is trying his best to sabotage the 'autonomy slogan' which the NC is pressing as its major electoral plank. The Congress says it is yet another populist tactic since 'the NC government has failed even in presenting a preliminary report on the subject even though it is already 17 months old in office'. The BJP, on the other hand, says that 'such slogans are ultimately damaging to the interests of the state for which better integration is the only way out'.

The rivals of the chief minister's son are also banking upon the alienation of the local people from the government in view of continued alleged atrocities including custodial killings. Corruption, unemployment, continuing insurgency, the widening gap between the ruling party and the masses are some of the high points of NC's opponents. Even the inability of the NC candidate to break into his native language are being used as 'minus points of the ruling party candidate'. The senior leaders of the NC are, however, "confident that the people shall in the end decide in favour of the regional party's candidate whose three generations have served Kashmiris."

The Congress also banks heavily on the 'alienation factor' and expects that the 'wrath of all this shall fall on Dr Abdullah's son'. In spite of the fact that the NC has precious little to present before the people as its main achievements, available indications here are that the grandson of the late Sheikh might well ride piggyback on a 60-year old legacy and make it safely to Parliament despite little to base such an achievement on.

Elections '98

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