Congress fails to contest from Valley, cadre demotivated

The NC did not give the Anantnag seat to the Congress.

After the Congress failed to secure a seat to contest from in the Kashmir Valley in the talks with the National Conference, the overwhelming majority of the party cadre has been left demotivated, which could impact its performance in the Assembly elections, say senior Congress leaders.

There is also a belief among senior Congress leaders that their alliance with NC may not work on the expected lines. As the Congress and NC have always fought tooth and nail, the grand old party’s voter base may not find it easy to vote for the NC candidates if the local Congress leadership does not come out in support of NC.

The AICC general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand and former president of Jammu and Kashmir unit Ghulam Ahmed Mir is said to have suggested that the Congress’ National Alliance Committee (NAC) should have negotiated the Anantnag seat for him. Ghulam Ahmed Mir had contested the seat the last time and secured around 27%. A party insider said, “He had put his name first and had given second preference to Tariq Hamid Karra from Srinagar. However, the Congress found itself weak in negotiating even one seat in the valley and Anantnag went to the NC. Now that there is no seat for us, we are facing an existential threat in the valley.”

A political analyst said, “Lately, it has been seen that the leaders within Congress have been eyeing to leave the party because they see no future in Kashmir. Mostly, because the leadership is functioning poorly. In that leadership, the unit president Vikar Rasool Wani doesn’t seem to care about the improvement of the cadre. Now that the party has no share of seats in the valley, it has led to further demotivation of the cadre.”