The fair of democracy is at our shores. The season of elections is here. The privacy of the election booth is where the future of candidates gets decided. It is here where our future leaders are chosen. The battle of ideas is raging on. The manifestoes are being rolled out every other day. The political parties are vying with each other to attract the people towards them. There is a high level of defection and the rebel leaders are joining rival camps by dozens. In short all that that can happen in an election season is happening in Kashmir now.
While as the BJP and the Indian National Congress (INC) appear to be front runners in the Jammu region, it is National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and People’s Conference which are said to dominate in the Kashmir region. The parties like Panther’s Party and Awami Etihad Party (AIP) can be kingmakers and one should never underestimate the critical role that these parties would be playing at a later stage of government formation. Many top leaders are contesting from multiple seats like Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and Sajad Lone of the People’s Conference. Elections are always unpredictable and these leaders know this. Omar Abdullah, in particular, is treading very cautiously after the defeat in the parliamentary elections. The usual flair which one associates with Omar Abdullah is no longer there and he is more grounded, more reticent and at one occasion removed his skull cap in humility asking people to vote for him.
While the National Conference has pledged a pre-poll alliance with Indian National Congress but if the latter’s numbers dip to a single digit in Jammu region we may quiet well see NC shoring upto BJP as well. There are, as they say, no permanent, friends or enemies in politics.
The people are enjoying this grueling battle. They understand that while all candidates are laying out multiple promises before then they will have to chose only one when it comes to the privacy of the voting booth. In politics people are always smarter and in the next two to three weeks people will give their verdict. The voters have become smart and we can be rest assured that they will definitely make a smart choice.
