Party says result ‘unexpected’, time to introspect
Jammu,TDD, Congress party, which is contesting 32 seats, majorly in Jammu region, failed to make in mark, despite its campaign led by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
Congress party managed only one seat from Jammu division, as its candidate Iftkar Ahmed won from Rajouri, while it failed to open account on the remaining 42 seats in nine districts of Jammu, where the party was considered very strong in the past. Congress party’s stalwarts Raman Bhalla (Jammu South), Yogesh Sawhney (Jammu East), Mula Ram (Marh), Mumtaz Ahmed (Reasi), Sumeet Magotra (Udhampur West), Manohar Lal Sharma (Billawar), Cch. Lal Singh (Basholi), Rakesh Kumar (Hiranagar), Yash Paul Kundal (Ramghar), Neeraj Kundan (Bishnah), Bhusan Lal (Suchetghar), Taranjit Singh Tony (Bahu), Manmohan Singh (Jammu West), Ashok Kumar (Akhnoor) and Mohd Shahnawaz (Surankote) remain second in fray. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand (Chhamb), Nadeem Sharief (Bhadarwah), Bhupinder Singh (Shri Mata Vaishno Devi) , Mool Raj ( Ramnagar) , Balbir Singh (Nagotra) finished third. While Former Minister Mohd Shabir Khan (Thanamandi), Kajal Rajput (Bani), Balbir Singh (Jasrota) and Krishan Dev Singh (Samba) finished fourth.
After the verdict, the Congress party has acknowledged it and said that the party will introspect in its performance.
“The results in Jammu region are not upto our expectations and surprisingly against ground situation, in different parts, for which a detailed feedback shall be held with party workers,” said JKPCC Senior Vice President & Chief Spokesperson Ravinder Sharma .
He however, said BJP tried to create a fake and negative narrative in Jammu against Congress-NC coalition while it hobnobbed with separatist forces in the valley and was desperate for gaining power by hook & crook but people defeated it’s designs. It was ready to defeat the mandate of the people through backdoor nominations of five MLAs but failed to succeed in its mission due to lack of basic numbers to manipulate. He maintained that nominations without recommendations of the new council of ministers would be wrong and against law.
Congress spokesperson also has expressed gratitude to the people for a decisive mandate in favour of NC – Congress coalition and to keep BJP out of power. Talking to media persons at party he said hollow claims of BJP regarding Jammu &Kashmir have been exposed by the people, who have given a loud message that they are not satisfied with the policies & actions of BJP for the past ten years.
However he said that there was large scale resentment against BJP in Jammu region too over record unemployment, price rise, huge taxations of various sorts but the results don’t match ground situation witnessed during campaign also.TDD
