Lok Sabha Elections: Mehbooba Mufti's Dilemma in Kashmir

While NC and the Congress have agreed to share the Lok Sabha seats of Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri and Baramulla, the PDP seems adamant on contesting the Anantnag-Rajouri seat even as the INDIA constituent parties have suggested to the PDP to support the NC on the seat given her party's weak position after Article 370 abrogation, reports ETV Bharat's Mir Farhat.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): At a time when the National Conference and the Congress, the constituents of INDIA bloc, are holding talks over seat sharing on five seats of Jammu and Kashmir and one seat of Ladakh, former chief minister and PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, also an INDIA alliance member, seems to have been caught in a dilemma.

NC and Congress have agreed to share seats in Jammu and Kashmir but the former is refusing to have any truck with PDP for the forthcoming parliamentary elections. NC vice president Omar Abdullah has said that he is holding talks with Congress leaders in Delhi over seat sharing. Omar spoke on seat sharing twice but each time he kept PDP out of the discourse. He said that three seats of Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla were won by NC in 2019, so these seats should remain with NC.

Sources said the two parties have almost agreed that NC will contest two seats of Srinagar and Baramulla, while Congress will contest Jammu and Udhampur and the only seat of Ladakh. The bone of contention between NC and Congress is Anantnag-Rajouri seat which has over 14 lakh voters with overwhelming Muslim voters. All the three parties of INDIA alliance claim Anantnag-Rajouri as their strongholds.

Sources in the INDIA alliance said that PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is eagerly pushing to contest the Anantnag-Rajouri seat with support of Congress and NC, but both the INDIA alliance partners are dithering. Congress leaders in Delhi have suggested to Mehbooba that given her party's weak position after Article 370 abrogation, she should support NC and Congress and later she could be accommodated in Rajya Sabha.

INDIA bloc sources said that Mehbooba has argued that south Kashmir has been her party's stronghold with the party winning majority of the seats in the last two assembly elections. However, after 2022's controversial delimitation, four assembly seats of Pulwama and one seat of Shopian districts were removed from the Anantnag seat and seven seats of Rajouri and Poonch districts were added to it. They said that for the same reason NC can't claim Anantnag-Rajouri as it won the seat in 2019 when Pulwama and Shopian were part of Anantnag.

"After delimitation the electoral arithmetic of Anantnag-Rajouri has changed. If we see on ground, Congress has more support than NC and PDP in Anantnag-Rajouri, and by that logic Congress should contest the seat," a senior Congress leader told ETV Bharat.

PDP has seen huge decline after August 5, 2019 when over 40 of its leaders and dozens of activists left the party and formed Apni Party. However, many youth have joined it, but they don't have a significant chance to clinch a victory in the parliamentary election.

A senior Congress leader told ETV that Mehbooba has been holding talks with the party leadership in Delhi.

"She (Mehbooba Mufti) is in touch with Congress leaders in Delhi. She has suggested contesting the Anantnag-Rajouri seat. Neither NC nor Congress is agreeing to it given the PDP's position. But for larger interests and to keep BJP out, each constituent of the alliance has to show flexibility and compromise," the leader said.

PDP sources said that its senior leader and parliamentary board chairman Sartaj Madni is visiting Rajouri and Poonch districts from March 3 to 8 to show party support and get suggestions from the workers.

PDP had won three assembly segments in Poonch and Rajouri. Choudhary Zulfkar from Darhal, Rajouri, Shah Mohammad Tantray from Poonch and Choudhary Qamar won the 2014 assembly elections on PDP ticket, but these leaders switched over to Apni Party in 2020.

PDP sources said that there is a unanimous thinking in party leadership that if the INDIA alliance doesn't work out on Anantnag-Rajouri, it will field its candidates on three seats of Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla.

However, analysts argue that Mehbooba can't afford to contest against NC and Congress as she is the only leader who has been vocal and active for unity of opposition parties against BJP after abrogation of Article 370.

"She faces a moral dilemma as unity onus and claim lies on her. If she contests parliament elections against the NC and Congress alliance, she will face most of the criticism and her unity claims will lay in tatters," a senior journalist told ETV Bharat.

However, a ray of hope for PDP came from JK Congress chief Viqar Rasool who on Thursday said that talks on seat sharing between NC, Congress and PDP are going on and by the first week of March, the alliance will finalise the candidates.

Anantnag-Rajouri seat has become most contentious for INDIA alliance and for BJP as well. "This seat has thrown an interesting challenge for the INDIA alliance . For us to defeat BJP, we must compromise with one another and field an alliance candidate," Viqar said.