J&K Congress is in a critical phase

Leadership has given responsibilities to those who are either ‘new’ to politics or those who have least ‘political acumen’.

NEW DELHI: Three months after the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which ended in Kashmir, Congress leaders in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir claim that the cadre is on the brink of collapse as the leadership is aimless and has also given responsibilities to those who are either “new” to politics or those who have least “political acumen”.
The reasons for this, a senior Congress leader said, is the inability to lead the existing partymen. “The party president (Vikar Rasool Vani) has not been able to communicate well with senior leaders. He is young. Earlier, he was given time by senior leaders to get acclimatized with the position. They thought he will learn and with time come to know how things function. But now he has created his own circle of young politicians and newcomers which has kept a large section of partymen at bay.”
He further added, “This has not only led to their (senior leaders) disappointment, but now they do not have any substantial role to play. Moreover, party members are disinterested and scattered.”
Another senior leader said, “Cadre is totally not interested because there is no political person around him. If things persist like this, the party may go extinct in the Union territory. Also, there are no leaders associated with him who can prove to be vote catchers. They are new people.”
There is a widespread disappointment within senior leadership. A section of Congress claims the senior leaders are not taken into confidence while making important decisions. Thereby, the senior leaders, due to lack of efficiency of leadership, have been side-lined. An ex-district president in the state said, “They have kept those as district in-charges who were not in Congress recently. Some of them are totally new and they don’t know anything about politics. So how would people who have been in the party and know politics well want to work under these in-charges, when they don’t know anything about politics.”
The party leaders say that the party, if not taken care of, would perform poorly in the upcoming municipality and panchayat elections, that are to be held by the end of this year.
Vikar Rasool wani was directly made president of Jammu and Kashmir by Rahul Gandhi last year. He was the loyalist of Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, Azad left the party with his loyalists the same year, giving greater space to Wani to work. As earlier, the state unit was known to have two camps, Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Azad camps, which had led to consistent infighting within the party. “But he (Wani) hasn’t been able to do much.”