Omkar Dattatray
Yes election is the maha-festival of democracy and it should be celebrated in a civilized responsive and desirable manner. But then it has also become a season and time of desertions, homecomings and the like. Elections or electoral democracy ceases to have meaning without elections and we can say that democracy sans elections is no democracy at all. It may be any other form of government but not democracy in true sense.
Therefore democracy ceases to be democracy without elections. This festival of democracy comes after every five years and gives the people who are the supreme power in a democracy, the right and duty to cast vote and elect a government of their choice. The elections should be celebrated with all humility and discipline. But at the same time election season is a season of noises, dust and din and it is the time of ups and downs and election noises have some relevance as well. But once the election is held, results are announced and governments formed, all the dust, election noise and din comes to an abrupt end.
The political atmosphere becomes calm again. Election eve is the eve of desertions, dissentions and homecomings and it has become a time for hurling unsubstantiated and false charges upon each other. Political parties and political leaders without exception attack each other verbally and level charges and counter charges only to score political points which in the final analysis results in getting votes. In our electoral system and electoral exercise and politics, politicians stoop low to any extent as is seen these days in Jammu and Kashmir. In J&K mainstream politicians and political parties speak the language of separatists and threaten and blackmail the centre government. See how the so called mainstream political leaders and parties are on the same page so far as the decision of the government to ban civilian traffic during convoy of security forces on Sundays and Wednesdays Is concerned. It is no assault on the people's freedom but this step has been taken by the authorities for security reasons and all know it well. But still a mountain is sought to be made out of the mole hill and unnecessary heat is generated by the mainstream parties only to earn sympathy of the separatists and in order to earn votes. Same is the case with controversial article 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution which are the temporary provisions and should be scrapped for the good of the state and the country. Unnecessary noise, heat and hue and cry is made by the so called mainstreamers and the separatists as well to browbeat the centre government so that they will not dare to revoke these transitory provisions.
Coming back to the main theme that election is a time of desertions, dissentions as well as homecomings. Both at the national level and at the state level politicians leave their parties at the drop of the hat when they are denied party tickets and some politicians come back to their party fold after spending some time as wilderness. Shatrugun Sinha the BJP leader deserted BJP as he was denied ticket from his constituency of Patna Sahib in Bihar and he joined BJP's rival party the congress. In our state Sham Lal Sharma Ex-congress minister and vice president of the congress quit the party and joined BJP and campaigned for the BJP Candidate in Doda-Udhampur and Jammu-Poonch constituency.
Many leaders of the regional PDP and NC deserted their parent parties and joined other political outfits where they see their future safe. This can be called Aya Ram Gaya Ram phenomenon and it is the characteristic of political parties without exception. Some politicians who have earlier deserted their parties come back to their original/Parent parties when they see bleak chances of being in politics in these parties and they come back and embrace their old parties. In J&K, in both PDP and NC so many leaders have quit their parties and joined new parties or the parties of their choice. PDP leaders have joined NC and People's conference party of Sajjad Lone and some NC leaders have also deserted their party and joined PDP. And this game and exercise of deserting parties and joining new parties gets momentum during elections. And at the same time there is homecoming of some politicians to their old parties. Earlier during Municipal elections Junaid Mattu one of the young and important leaders of youth NC deserted NC and took part in the elections and won the elections and was elected as the mayor of prestigious Srinagar Municipal Corporation. The political hygiene is at its low ebb during elections and all murkier deals flourish in the elections and once elections are over everything is normal once again and those who were political adversaries dine in the same table and this is the strength and dynamism of Indian democracy.
To cut it short the election time is the time of desertions, floor crossings and homecomings. Facing an uphill task in the Lok Sabha elections, congress earlier announced 8 candidates out of 17 Lok Sabha seats. This is an election between congress and others Vs BJP and others. Ahead of Lok Sabha elections Congress in Telangana is facing a crisis of sorts with as many as 6 MLA's announcing their decision to leave the party to join ruling TRS. Desertion of MLA's is a setback to congress ahead of Lok Sabha polls in Telangana. Congress which was a part of a front, comprising TDP, CPI and Telangana Jan Samithi is in crisis of desertions. Two MLAs – Atram Sakku and Rega Kantha Rao quit the party and announced their decision to join TRS. This was followed by two more MLAs leaving the party. In Karnataka state three congress MLAs are lost and found new desertion rumors swirl in Karnataka.
The ruling congress and JDS are accusing BJP of trying to lure away their MLAs to topple H.D Kumaraswamy coalition government. As congress fights for survival in Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, BJP stands to gain.
The grand old party has been nearly wiped out in the southern state and has conceded the main opposition space to BJP in eastern states. Mass desertions, factionalism, weaken organization and declining vote share put a question mark on congress's preparedness to take on BJP in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha which account for 88 seats of India's 543 Lok Sabha seats. Kishore Chandra Deo resigned from Congress (a former union minister). In recent months former union minister Kavuri Sambhavshiva Rao and Dugubati Purandhareswari and former state ministers Pasuleti Balarura, Vati Vasant, Kumar Lakshmi Narayan Kanna have left the party for greener pastures.
J&K PDP is facing unending stream of its senior leaders deserting the party and joining the BJP backed PC of former separatist Sajjad Lone. PDP was facing desertions and those who have deserted have joined either the NC or PC. Former ministers Basharat Bukhari and Peer Mohammad Hussain switched to NC. Others who left PDP are Haseeb Drabu Ex-Finance minister, Imran Ansari who was IT minister, former MLAs Mohd. Abbas, Abid Hussain and many others. Similarly some leaders from NC are quitting the party to join other parties. Sone BJP leaders in J&K are also quitting the party. To sum up election is the season of desertions and homecomings.
