National Conference Provincial Headquarters in the wintercapital of Jammu and Kashmir kept reverberating with crackers and drum beatingon every report trickling in about the party winning all the three seats ofSrinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag it contested in the just concluded generalelections to Lok Sabha, a party spokesman said.
Led by Provincial President Devender Singh Rana along withsenior leaders, the National Conference workers rejoiced the victory of theparty President Dr Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar parliamentary constituency,Mohammed Akbar Lone from Baramulla and Justice (Retired) Hasnain Masoodi fromAnantnag Lok Sabha seat.
“This is the victoryof the progressive and forward looking policies of National Conference andinspiring leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah and Mr Omar Abdullah”, DevenderSingh Rana told the reporters at Sher-e-Kashmir Bhavan here this afternoon.
Rana described today’s victory as a semi-final to the finalsof assembly elections which will witness National Conference forming thegovernment in Jammu and Kashmir on its own. He said Jammu and Ladakh regionstoo will witness the party getting maximum number of seats like in Kashmir,leading National Conference to absolute majority.
He said National Conference is a force to reckon with, whichhas started bouncing back in full steam. He termed the non-NC coalitions asaberration, adding that the previous BJP-PDP dispensation turned out to be abig disaster that pushed the state to morass and political instability withpeople of all the three regions feeling dejected and deprived. He said thefailures of this insensitive coalition took the state to backwards ondevelopmental front.
When asked about the BJP staging comeback at the Centre andits impact on the politics of Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Rana said that the twoelections are quite different. While the Lok Sabha elections were aimed at theformation of the government at the Centre, the assembly elections are all aboutaddressing to the political, economic and developmental aspirations of thestate, which can only be assuaged by the National Conference. This has beensubstantiated many a times in the past when the governments led by NationalConference worked towards development and progress of the three regions withopportunities to all, irrespective of regional or religious aspirations, hemaintained.
“The contestants in the assembly elections will have tostand to the aspirations and expectations of their electorate here on groundzero”, Rana said in reply to a question, adding that the performance of the BJPlegislators is not a distant memory but still afresh in the minds of thepeople, who feel haunted by over three years of misrule. He exuded confidencethat National Conference will secure the absolute mandate of the people andwork for their betterment.