After what Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah described as a comprehens

ive rout of the National Conference-Congress alliance in the State in the Lok Sab
ha elections, it was only a matter of time before the two parted ways. The allia
nces perceptible failure to connect with the people of the State where it has rul
ed since 2009, the allegations of corruption and the all-too- apparent governanc
e deficit were responsible for the defeat. It lost in all six seats, while the P
eoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party won three each. In their s
earch for scapegoats, the alliance partners blamed each other. The National Conf
erence (NC) believes it was done in by the UPA governments hanging of Afzal Guru.
The Congress blamed its partner for eroding the Hindu vote bank in Jammu by inv
oking the spectre of secession on the issue of Article 370. The NC-Congress rela
tionship has always been a chequered one, rarely sustained in adversity. Wheneve
r the two parties have come together, it has been more of an understanding betwe
en the Abdullahs and the Gandhis, and the arrangement has rarely found favour wi
th the two parties at the State level. In fact, the States two main Congress lead
ers, Saifuddin Soz and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who disagree on almost everything else,
were for long in agreement that the coalition had become a liability for the Co
ngress. After the 2010 stone-pelting agitation in the Valley, the States Congress
leadership had strongly recommended withdrawal of support to the Omar Abdullah
government.
Now that the split has taken place, both parties claim to be the first to have w
alked away, even though the usefulness of this as a political tactic is question
able. Anti-incumbency was much in evidence during the parliamentary elections, p
rompting Chief Minister Abdullah to roll out a series of measures aimed at winni
ng back the confidence of the people immediately after the rout SMS services on
prepaid mobile phones, banned since the stone-pelting agitation, were restored;
the retirement age of government employees was raised from 58 to 60 years, and a
ll temporary recruitments were regularised. A desperate Mr. Abdullah has also gi
ven out his e-mail address asking people to send their grievances to him directl
y. With a resettlement plan for Pandits who fled the Valley when militancy began
and still live in squalid camps in Jammu, he is also wooing the BJPs constituenc
y. At the moment, the PDP, fresh from its Lok Sabha gains, is already exuding th
e confidence of a winner. No doubt, it expects to benefit from the NC-Congress s
plit. But the Assembly elections are still four months away, which is a long tim
e in politics anywhere, and especially in Jammu & Kashmir.