'Acid test' for Azad to maintain Cong sway on home turf

As Congress seeks a turnaround in its electoral fortunes in the upcoming Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, its star campaigner and former chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad finds himself facing an acid test of ensuring that the party holds on to five of the six seats it won last time in his home turf of Chenab Valley.
Kicking off the campaign for the five-phase polls in the state, the former chief minister harked back to the slogan of 'Khushaal Jammu and Kashmir' which he had used while in office here to promote the goal of all-round development in the state.

Braving inclement conditions, Azad assures the people that the state would revert to the same era of "spectacular progress and development" as was witnessed during his tenure as chief minister if they repose trust and confidence in Congress.
Azad was the J-K chief minister from 2006 to 2009 before being succeeded by Omar Abdullah, who came to power at the head of a coalition government of National Conference and the Congress. However, the two parties are fighting the upcoming elections on their own.
Chenab Valley, which has six Assembly segments spread over the Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts, will go to polls in first phase on November 25.

"'Khushaal Jammu and Kashmir' envisages peace, progress and prosperity apart from the development of our state.

"I am seeking the mandate of the people on the plank of development and progress (Khushaal J-K), which has been my forte both as chief minister and Union minister," Azad told a public rally in a remote, mountainous area of Banihal Assembly constituency in Ramban district.
Apart from Banihal, Congress had won four more out of the six seats in Chenab Valley in the last Assembly polls in 2008, leaving the lone Kishtwar seat to National Conference's Sajjad Kitchloo. In fact, of the 17 seats won by Congress last time, five were in the Chenab Valley.

Azad, who has roots in the Chenab Valley -- he was born here in 1949 in Soti village in the Bhaderwah belt of Doda district -- retains considerable influence in the area.
In the 2014 polls, although he lost to BJP's Dr Jitendra Singh in the battle for the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, the senior Congress leader still managed to lead in the segments in Chenab Valley.
But with the emergence of the Narendra Modi factor in national politics and in the wake of electoral triumphs secured by BJP in Haryana and Maharashtra -- it was Congress which made way for the saffron outfit in both -- there is talk of Azad facing an "acid test" this time to retain the seats.

"It is an acid test for Azad. He has to face a challenge to retain the five seats, which were won by the party under his leadership in 2008," Vice President, Gandhi Global Family, and Padmashri awardee SP Varma told PTI.
Varma, however, feels that if there is anybody who can counter the growing influence of BJP under Modi, it is Azad, who is Congress's Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.