Srinagar, Oct 8: The National Conference (NC)’s participation in the Congress-led protest demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar remained limited to the opening day, bringing into focus NC’s engagement with the INDIA bloc mobilisation.
On Thursday, the agitation entered its third day in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, the NC was represented by its Rajya Sabha member and Parliamentary Party Leader Chowdhary Muhammad Ramzan, who joined the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, and other opposition leaders in a march from Parliament towards the Election Commission.
Ramzan described the participation as being on behalf of the NC’s parliamentary party.
“Representing the NC as the party’s Parliamentary Party Leader, joined my INDIA bloc colleagues in a protest march from Parliament House to the Election Commission,” he said.
Ramzan said national leaders and MPs from both Houses of Parliament, along with thousands of people, had participated in the protest demanding the resignation of the CEC and Election Commissioners over allegations of “vote theft”.
However, NC’s other MPs, including Lok Sabha members Main Altaf and estranged leader Aga Syed Ruhullah, and Rajya Sabha members Gurwinder Singh Oberoi and Sajad Kitchloo, were conspicuous by their absence.
After the protests on the first day on Tuesday, none of the NC leaders participated in the Delhi protests, even as Congress and several opposition parties continued the mobilisation.
The NC’s symbolic presence on Tuesday is notable as the party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc and has publicly criticised the Election Commission over electoral-roll revision and related issues.
The party’s absence from the continuing Delhi protest also comes despite its participation in opposition activities on the issue in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the NC is not the only major Kashmir political party absent from the Delhi agitation.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), led by Mehbooba Mufti, the People’s Conference (PC), led by Sajad Gani Lone, and Member of Parliament Abdul Rashid Sheikh’s Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) have also stayed away from the Congress-led protests in the national capital despite all of them being vocal against SIR.
Even NC’s estranged leader, Aga Syed Ruhullah, who has emerged as one of the party’s more vocal internal critics and has criticised the Election Commission, has not joined the Delhi mobilisation.
This means that the Congress-led protest has not translated into continuous participation by the main ruling party or the principal opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir.
The NC’s approach also resembles that of the Samajwadi Party in the unfolding Delhi protests.
SP President AkhileshYadav joined the INDIA bloc’s opening-day march on Tuesday, following which he was detained.
However, the SP was absent from a Congress-hosted opposition lunch and the subsequent protests.
Tuesday’s march was attended by several prominent INDIA bloc leaders, including TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, SP chief AkhileshYadav, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut, CPI(M)’s John Brittas, and NCP-SP’s SupriyaSule, besides Congress leaders and MPs.
With its presence on the opening day followed by its absence on the second and third days of the Congress-led protest, the NC has sent mixed signals to the INDIA bloc.
That limited participation comes against the backdrop of the party’s continuing alliance with Congress and other opposition groups, leaving its role in the sustained Delhi campaign demanding the removal of the CEC under the scanner.
