Speculations rife over continuation of Azad as Leader of Opposition

Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Dec 23: Coinciding with the poor performance of the Congress – National Conference (NC) in the State, the Rajya Sabha today bid farewell to four members of the coalition.
These members included leader of the Opposition and former Union Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress (JKPCC) chief, Saif-ud-Din Soz and two members of National Conference Mohammad Shafi Uri and G N Rattanpuri. The term of all four members comes to an end in February next year.
Two of them — Mohammad Shafi and G N Rattanpuri have even contested the recently concluded elections. While Mohammad Shafi has successfully won from Uri defeating his nearest rival Ajaz Ali Khan of PDP, G N Rattanpuri was defeated by Mohammad Khalil Ban of PDP by nearly 1000 votes.
All the four members had become the members of Rajya Sabha on February 13, 2009 as per a sharing pact, when the Congress-National coalition Government was ruling the State. While initially, former Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah was elected to the Upper House, he was replaced by G N Rattanpuri after the former entered Lok Sabha during May 2009 Parliamentary polls.
However, with the State delivering a highly fractured verdict, there is little likelihood of any member of Congress or National Conference making it again to the Upper House.
The highly-fractured mandate has thrown a spanner on the plans of former Chief Minister and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad to seek re-election to Rajya Sabha from the quota of Jammu and Kashmir Government.
Mr Azad, who has been made the election in charge of the Congress campaign committee in Jammu and Kashmir had high stakes in the Assembly polls as his continuation to the prestigious post of the leader of Opposition hinged on the electoral outcome of the party. National Conference is unlikely to support the candidature of Azad in view of the bitter campaign that Congress party run against the former and even witnessed personal attacks between the top leadership of two parties.
PDP, which has emerged has the single largest party in the State has the numbers to help Azad getting renominated to the Rajya Sabha, but that is likely to happen only when they form the coalition Government in the State.
Realising that the Congress wasn’t going to far well in the Assembly polls, Azad had pitched for a Rajya Sabha berth from Uttarakhand, when elections were held there last month to fill the seat vacated by the BJP’s Bhagat Singh Koshiyari following his election to the Lok Sabha. But, there was strong opposition from the Uttarakhand Congress, which insisted a local candidate be nominated this time as outsider had been given preference in the past. Azad again lost out, when Congress leadership handpicked P L Punia for the Rajya Sabha seat from Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, several top leaders of the Congress party have already started vying for the post of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, in case the former Union Minister fails to be renominated from the border State. Contenders for the post, which has status of leader of Opposition included senior leaders like A K Antony, Anand Sharma, Digvijay Singh, P J Kurien, Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Madhusudan Mistry.
Bharatiya Janata is also seriously eyeing the quota of Rajya Sabha seats from the border State as it slowly but steadily wants to narrow the gap of 26 seats with Congress in Rajya Sabha over the next couple of months. The Congress strength in Rajya Sabha is 69, while BJP has 43 members in the House of 245.
The Rajya Sabha elections are set to be tricky for Congress in the wake of its losing grip on State. Immediately after the Lok Sabha decimation in May this year, the party has lost Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and has also not fared well in Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile, on the last day of the Winter Session, Rajya Sabha today bid farewell to four members from Jammu and Kashmir—- Ghulam Nabi Azad, Saif-ud-Din Soz (Congress party) and two members of National Conference Mohammad Shafi Uri and G N Rattanpuri. All these members will retire in February next month.
While bidding them farewell, Chairman Hamid Ansari lauded their contribution and said the House would certainly miss members who would not be coming back.
“The members, who are retiring, have made rich contributions in the deliberations of the House and I wish to place on record my personal appreciation for the courtesy, consideration and cooperation extended to the Chair (by the retiring members),” Ansari said.
“I am sure the retiring members would continue to serve in other capacities and would be making good use of the knowledge and experience gained by them during their association with this House,” he said.
On behalf of Rajya Sabha, he wished the retiring members’ good health, success and long years of service to the nation.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu expressed the hope that Azad would return to the House.
Jammu and Kashmir has four Rajya Sabha seats, the elections to which are held after every six years. As per the normal practice, one third of the Rajya Sabha members should retire after every two years. However, this is not the case in Jammu and Kashmir, where all four members retire after six years and the vacancies are filled simultaneously.

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