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'Mandate' is the new golden word in offices of major political parties in Jammu & Kashmir.
With the assembly election round the corner, these parties are wracking their brains to select candidates for the crucial contest.
The ruling National Conference has already released its first list and its parliamentary board, comprising party president Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and stalwarts like Finance Minister A R Rather and Jammu provincial president Bodh Raj Bali, is holding talks in Jammu to draw up the second list.
"The second list should be out within a week," Bali told rediff.com. "Many new faces will be included."
Bali said the party would ensure representation for women, but did not commit himself to a percentage. "The women workers who we believe will be able to contribute will be included," he said.
The Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party are equally busy preparing for the election. The state Congress, buoyed by senior politician Ghulam Nabi Azad's appointment as president and the inclusion of former National Conference MP Saifuddin Soz, will declare its candidates within a week. Azad and Mangat Ram Sharma, the state Congress vice-president, are camping in New Delhi to get the high command's approval for the list.
The BJP was expected to declare its first list by Friday evening. But a party spokesman warned that some workers could be in for disappointment, as a few seats are likely to be given to the Jammu State Morcha as part of an electoral tie-up.
The JSM is a new party backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP's ideological parent, and is contesting the assembly election on the plank of trifurcating the state.
Sources in the BJP said the party wants to ensure a solid hold on the Hindu vote bank. Along with the trifurcation demand, its poll planks will be the domination of Kashmiri Muslims and discrimination against Jammu.
But the ruling National Conference rejects these charges. "We do not believe in discrimination," Bali said. "If someone is alleging domination and discrimination against Jammu, that person or party should come out with proof and we are ready to discuss it."
"When it comes to allocation of resources," he continued, "we have development boards for every district, which identify and spend allocations. Further, the NC government started the massive Baghlihar power project in Udhampur [in the Jammu region]. Is that discrimination?"
The Congress has a similar stand on the demand for a separate Jammu state. "In the recent Poonch parliamentary bye-election," Rawal Mattoo, a local Congress leader, remarked, "the Jammu State Morcha candidate, Dhanraj Gandotra, got just 1,100 votes. That proves the popularity of that demand."
The Assembly Election in J&K: The Complete Coverage
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