After his party wipeout in J&K, Ghulam Nabi Azad stares at political dead end

In the Lok Sabha elections, the DPAP had contested from Anantnag-Rajouri and Udhampur-Doda, but its nominees lost their security deposits from both the seats.

Soon after its inception, Azad’s party has faced a steady exodus of leaders. Although several prominent Congress faces had initially joined the DPAP, they deserted Azad, one after another.

Weeks before the Assembly polls, Azad suddenly announced that he was “unwell” and that he may not campaign for his candidates. This threw his party’s campaign out of gear, while prompting a few of its candidates to even withdraw their candidature from the first phase of polls held on September 18.

In 23 seats that the DPAP contested, its average vote share stood at 5.34%, registering 14.92 % in Hazratbal, its highest, followed by 13.74 % in Doda and 10.95 % in Gurez. The party recorded its lowest vote share of 0.27% in RS Pura-Jammu South and 0.28% in Jammu North.

The five seats where the party polled less votes than NOTA include R S Pura-Jammu South, Ramnagar, Bahu, Jammu North and Doda West.

In Doda West, the DPAP got 436 votes while NOTA got 998. The party polled 237 votes in RS Pura where NOTA got 432. In Ramnagar, the party secured 463 votes whereas NOTA polled 1,167.

The DPAP garnered 362 votes in Bahu where NOTA polled 460. In Jammu North, the party got 204 votes while NOTA received 319.

Azad’s best hope in these polls was that some of his party candidates would win some seats so that it could give him a leverage in the post-poll scenario.

Struggling to keep his party afloat, Azad, whose political career seems to be at its fag end, has also reeled from the “BJP proxy” tag used by his critics in J&K.

Talking to The Indian Express during his campaigning last month, Azad had predicted a hung Assembly, arguing that no party or alliance would get a majority. In the final analysis, the polls were however clinched by the National Conference-Congress alliance.