SRINAGAR: The resounding mandate for the INDIA bloc in J&K failed to hide the tame failure of Congress to live up to its pre-poll expectation of taking on BJP in its Hindu stronghold of Jammu. Congress won a lone seat in Jammu region, and that too via a minority candidate in the reserved Rajouri constituency. This is the worst performance of Congress in the region.
Though Congress won five seats in Kashmir, it was expected to boost the alliance in Jammu, with better ground presence and appeal.Given the polarised nature of J&K after 2014, NC has taken a back seat while expecting Congress to fill the vacuum with Hindu voters and the middle class. The Lok Sabha trends showed an improvement in Congress’s standing as its Lok Sabha candidates sharply cut the margins of victory of BJP nominees in Jammu and Udhampur seats.
With Congress performing better nationally than was forecast in the 2024 LS contest, the party came to believe it was on a comeback trail, and Jammu became its target. In the alliance with NC, Congress got – seats to contest in Jammu. But the hopes fell by the wayside. Ally and NC chief Omar Abdullah had sounded the warning during the campaign by publicly stating that Congress was not focusing on Jammu where it was expected to do the heavylifting and thereby given the lion’s share of seats. “It does not matter what Congress does in Kashmir, what matters is how Congress fares in Jammu,” Abdullah had remarked bitterly, slamming the ally for wrongly focusing on Kashmir.
Congress’ working presidents Raman Bhalla and Tara Chand, former MP Lal Singh, former state president Vikar Rasool Wani among others failed to win, though some of them lost by smaller margins. BJP gained directly from the Congress failure and boosted its tally to 29, the number of segments it led in the Lok Sabha polls.