Srinagar swings to NC, Jammu to BJP
Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
It was a victory sans fanfare, sans celebrations, sans, even, crowds.
But sweet, nonetheless, for poll novice and National Conference candidate
Omar Farooq Abdullah.
For him, Chief Minister Farooq
Abdullah's son, the Srinagar seat comes as a splendid
birthday present -- he turns 28 tomorrow.
Inside the heavily guarded International Conference
Centre on the bank of the Dal lake, on Monday afternoon, the returning officer had read out in a flat voice:
"I declare Omar Abdullah,
sponsored by the National Conference, elected to fill the seat
in the House
from Srinagar."
Unlike in the past, no roars from NC supporters greeted
the declaration, no thunder of clapping
hands rolled over it. For, besides the dozens of commandos, there were but a few people at the function. The NC MLAs who were present raised a few token slogans, that was all.
As Omar Farooq, who defeated his nearest rival and Congress candidate Agha Syed Mehdi by a margin of 70,839 votes, stepped
out of the Conference Centre, he was garlanded. And then he disappeared into a circle of commandos and paramilitary
forces who, for the past five days, had literally laid a siege around the centre.
Later, the victor sat in a bullet proof Gypsy and, escorted by heavily armed support cars, took out a scraggly procession which ended
at the chief minister's home. Dr Abdullah, garland in hand, was waiting for him.
"I am happy he
won. He will raise voice in Parliament for the people," Dr Abdullah said.
"I will not accept any ministry, but will work for my people.
They have a lot of problems," Omar Farooq added.
Outside, life progressed smoothly, normally -- Omar Farooq's victory seemed to have little impact on the common public in Srinagar, where
not more than
five per cent votes were polled in the nine constituencies.
"He
never came to my locality during the campaign. I have seen him
only on television," said Mehraj Ud-Din, a fruit seller. He contrasted the day with the time when Dr Farooq was first elected. "Thousands came out on the streets," he said, "There was night-long celebrations."
He blames the NC for the evident erosion in its support base. The party, he said, had alienated their
staunch supporters in Srinagar and other parts of the valley.
In Lal Chowk, Mohammad Sidiq, another vendor said, "Omar Farooq doesn't even speak Kashmiri. How can I narrate my problems to him?"
The old city of Srinagar, too, seemed completely oblivious to Omar Farooq's
win.
"Yes," agrees Omar Farooq when his attention is drawn to the lack of revelry, "'There is an erosion in the NC workers. We have to take party affairs more seriously."
Though there is an 853,187-strong electorate in the constituency, only 255,143 votes were cast. Of this, the NC candidate, contesting against seven others, polled 144, 609 against the Congress's 73,770 votes. And BJP candidate Abdul Rashid Kabuli got 11,135 votes.
As many as 2,883 votes in four disputed ballot boxes were not taken up for counting.
Omar Farooq maintained the lead throughout in
Hazratbal, Sonawar, Idgah, Batmaloo, Amira Kadal, Habba Kadal,
Charar-e-Sharief, Chadura, Khanyar and Beerwah as also the Gujjar-dominated
Ganderbal and Kangan. In the Shia-dominated Zadibal and Badgam, it was the Congress candidate who took the lead.
In Jammu, the Bharatiya Janata Party won the seat for the first time.
Since 1967, when parliamentary elections were first held in the
state, the constituency has returned only Congress candidates.
Members to the Lok Sabha were nominated from the state before 1967.
The BJP's Vaid Vishnu Dutt polled 336,472 votes against his nearest rival and National Conference candidate Janak Raj Gupta, who polled 208, 571 votes. Mangat Ram Sharma of the Congress, who represented the seat in the dissolved Lok Sabha, came third with 140,832 votes while the Bahujan Samaj Party's S Girdhari Lal polled 74,000 votes.
Dutt led in all the 11 assembly segments of Jammu district
besides those of Nowshera, Kalkote and Rajouri in Rajouri district.
With the Jammu seat coming in, the BJP tally in the Lok Sabha has
risen to 179 while the Congress strength stayed at 140.
Counting in the other two Jammu and Kashmir
constituencies -- Anantnag and Baramullah which went to poll on March 7 -- is in progress.
In Anantnag, Congress candidate Mufti Muhammad Gayed was leading by 1,509 votes over NC's Mohammad Yousuf after the first round.
Udhampur will go to the polls on March 18, while the election in Ladakh is scheduled for June 21, along with Mandi in Himachal Pradesh.
Additional reportage: UNI
Elections '98
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