Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is a sagacious politician and a pragmatic leader. Despite being stringently opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party ideologically, he maintains a level of dignity in dealing with the party leadership.
Unlike some other opposition Chief Ministers across the country, who make no secret of their aversion and hostility towards Prime Minister Modi and also try to capitalize on that, Omar has been profoundly and dignifiedly respectful towards him. He even went to the extent of taking a completely opposite stance on the Congress allegations about the EVM manipulation. That was apparently one of the reasons that the party switched over from “EVM manipulation” to “vote theft narrative”.
Even when he took over as the Chief Minister and there were hardly any members from Jammu region having won on National Conference ticket, he chose the sole winner from there, Surinder Chuahdary as the Deputy Chief Minister. Besides, he appointed another independent winner, a first-timer, as a minister.
However, Omar’s choice for the Rajya Sabha has left the people of Jammu, particularly his long-time loyalists deeply disappointed. Omar chose four candidates for the four Rajya Sabha seats. Besides one Sikh, there were three Muslims fielded by the National Conference. One of them lost while three got elected.
The choice of candidates Omar made was strange and surprising. Of the three candidates fielded from the safe and assured seats, two were those who had been defeated in the 2024 assembly elections. The third one is the party treasurer. The fourth one, who lost though, was picked up randomly as the party was well aware of his bleak prospects.
Jammu region is no doubt a BJP stronghold. The National Conference has hardly any footprints in this Hindu-dominated region. In the last assembly election, under the alliance with the Congress, most of the Hindu majority seats were left to the Congress, which lost all of these in the Jammu region. This left NC with hardly any representation from the Hindu-dominated areas.
The NC, before the emergence of the BJP as a dominant force, did have a significant presence in the Jammu region, including the Jammu city, considered to be the stronghold of the BJP. At one time, the NC had three MLAs from Jammu suburbs, including late Devinder Rana, Surjit Singh Slathia and Ajay Sadhotra. And the party did not have any alliance with any party that time. Rana, Slathia and Sadhotra won as the NC candidates.
Later, Rana and Salthia joined the BJP. Both of them won on the BJP ticket in the 2024 assembly elections. Rana died a few months ago and his daughter is now contesting the by-election from the Nagrota assembly constituency as a BJP candidate.
Sadhotra was the only main and prominent loyalist of the National Conference, more senior than Sajad Kitchlu, one of the RS candidates and as senior as Chuahdhary Ramzan, who also got elected. When most of the Jammu leaders deserted the NC, Sadhotra stood firm with the party and he continues to do so even now.
There is a widespread feeling among the people in Jammu region that the National Conference deliberately ignored it while finalising the candidates for the Rajya Sabha. Otherwise, given the seniority and loyalty of Ajay Sadhotra, he would have been an ideal candidate for the Upper House of the parliament. Besides, he would have proved to be a great voice for the union territory.
There is all likelihood that there was nothing deliberate or intentional on part of Omar not to pick up anyone from Jammu, Sadhotra in particular. But in politics, nobody tries to find out whether things done were intentional or unintentional. Everybody bothers about the consequences, which certainly are not good as it has reinforced the perception among the people of Jammu that the National Conference is mostly biased towards them.
The BJP will definitely exploit the issue, as the NC has provided it an axe to grind with. Had the NC made room for Sadhotra in the Rajya Sabha it would have conveyed a positive message from the ruling party to the people of the Jammu region. The NC leadership may be feeling justified not providing any RS representation to Jammu given the electoral record of the region. But as a party that seeks to be representative of the entire Jammu and Kashmir, having the name since its beginning as the “Jammu and Kashmir National Conference”, will need to be accommodative and resilient.
Electoral preferences of people are not permanent. The same people who have elected the BJP now, had elected the National Conference candidates a few elections ago. Political parties and leaders should look beyond the electoral prejudices and preferences of the electorate. Their policies must not be guided by such factors. Omar Abdullah has still four more years left and enough time to make amends and corrections.
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