National Conference president Omar Abdullah and party candidate from Srinagar parliamentary constituency seems to have learnt political lessons the hard way.
While most of his campaign managers would want the media to believe his victory is a foregone conclusion, Abdullah however reacted with utmost caution to a question about the chances of his victory.
"We have gone into the deepest corners all around. We campaigned aggressively. It is up to the people now to decide who they vote for. I cannot say anything. People are the supreme authority," he told rediff.com in an interview on the last day of the election campaign. Srinagar votes in the second phase of the general election on April 26. Jammu and Baramulla went to polls in the first phase, on April 20.
Abdullah's caution, however, is not misplaced. During the state assembly elections in 2002, he had almost decided his team of ministers and bureaucrats even before the adverse poll result from Ganderbal -- represented in the outgoing assembly by his father, Farooq Abdullah -- had become known. His defeat at the hands of the People's Democratic Party candidate Qazi Ahmed Afzal was the most serious jolt to the National Conference, as well as to Abdullah Jr who had taken over the party and announced his intention to focus on state politics.
Asked about the decision to relinquish federal politics and join state politics since he was now contesting for Parliament, Omar Abdullah said, "I am not leaving Kashmir. I am going to represent my people in Parliament. I am very much in the state. It is Mehbooba Mufti [the PDP president] who is leaving Kashmir to join central politics," he said as he prepared to leave on the campaign's last leg to the central Kashmir town of Charar-e-sharief.
Asked why the NC was depending so heavily on Dr Farooq Abdullah for its campaign across the Kashmir Valley, Omar shot back, "He was always in the state's political process. Dr Farooq campaigned during the 2002 assembly polls and is campaigning now during the 2004 parliamentary elections."
Asked about the performance of the National Democratic Alliance goverment, in which he was minister of state for external affairs till October 2002, he would not say anything beyond, "I cannot comment on that."
The NC chief, however, ruled out any alliance with Congress party saying, "We fought the 2002 elections against them and are fighting the parliamentary polls also against them. We will think of having an alliance if the Congress supports the women's bill and the state's unification."
He said his party's stand on the women's bill was clear. "We want the bill to be passed by the upper house."
Accompanied by his father Dr Farooq Abdullah, the NC chief left for Charar-e-sharief in a heavily escorted motorcade for the last public rally before campaigning ends today.
