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Mainstream parties field defeated candidates, caught on sticky wicket

SHABIR AHMAD. Dated: 11/19/2012 11:35:19 PM

‘PSUF to distribute pamphlets among Panchayat representatives’

SRINAGAR, Nov 19: With just two weeks left for the polls to four seats of legislative council in the state, Jammu Kashmir Panch Sarpanch United Forum (JKPSUF) which refused to support any mainstream party in polls and fielded its own candidates for all the four seats has geared up its campaigning to ensure victory in polls.
Political analysts believe that the candidates fielded by the mainstream political parties will have a tough walk against the candidates fielded by the Panchayat body.
The candidates fielded by JKPSUF are busy holding meetings with Panchayat representatives at village level in different assembly constituencies of both south and north Kashmir. Spokesman of the forum, Khursheed Malik, one of the candidates has started village to village campaigning in his respective constituency. “We are busy holding meetings with Panches and Sarpanchs at village level. After holding village level meetings with Panchayat representatives we will hold Panchayat meetings at block level in every Panchayat block,” Malik said.
Malik has also caught the mainstream political parties on a sticky wicket for their decision to field defeated candidates in LC polls. “The candidates fielded by coalition partners NC and Congress or PDP have already been rejected by the people in assembly or parliamentary elections. So the candidates having already been rejected don’t deserve to be the members of the council. So the Panches and Sarpanchs who are the elected representatives should not pave the way of the rejected candidates to LC,” Malik said.
As part of the campaigning the candidates fielded by the Panch Sarpanch Forum have also decided to publish pamphlets to be distributed among the Panchayat representatives. Since we can not launch a door to door campaign due to the shortage of time so we are in the process of publishing pamphlets in which we will narrate the woeful tale of Panches and Sarpanchs and later distribute the same among them. We will try to awaken the Panchayat representatives from the slumber through these pamphlets,” Malik said.
Meanwhile the political analysts say that the decision of the Panches and Sarpanchs to field their own candidates will make the walk for mainstream political parties tough in polls.
“It is finally Panchayat representatives who have to cast votes. The government has denied the space to Panchayats in the state and in such a situation the Panches and Sarpanchs are likely to elect their own representatives,” says a noted political analyst, Gul Mohammad Wani, who teaches political science at university of Kashmir. The democratic deficit of Panchayat Raj in the state already stands exposed and killings of some Panches and Sarpanchs has added to the mess. “In such a situation the candidates of mainstream political parties are likely to land in trouble,” Gul said.