The way militants gained supremacy over the APHC, which was demonstrated in Kashmir in the Friday bandh, the 23-party conglomerate has seemingly lost teeth to tear at its rival, the National Conference. Apart from gradual shrink in its influence among the people, the internal dissensions have dimmed its lustre. There are open ideological differences between the moderates and the hardliners and personal conflict between Mr Abdul Gani Lone and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, two senior members of the Hurriyat Executive Committee.

The two-year old PDP rose like a meteor but within this period the entire show is being run by father and daughter, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ms Mehbooba Sayeed. Two senior leaders, Ghulam Qadir Pardesi and Mr Ghulam Nabi Lasjan, have left the PDP. While Pardesi has joined the National Conference, the Mir would follow suit in case the National Conference agreed to field him from Ghadoora Assembly constituency. Three other senior party leaders are said to be in search of a new opening.

If goes to the credit of the Mufti that he has built the organisation from a scratch and within two years the PDP has its bases in the entire state. He has been the only mainstream political leader who has travelled to all district and tehsil headquarters in the state and held public rallies and party conventions there. But he has limitations in carrying his organisation much too far because people have become aware of his “balancing act” by gunning for Dr Abdullah on one hand and on the other expressing concern over human rights violations. And this concern is expressed whenever there are some true or fake violations on the part of the security forces.

Part of the National Conference worry is over with the growing dissensions in the Congress and the BJP. The dissidents in the Congress have become open while demanding the head of the PCC Chief Mohammed Shafi Qureshi. In the past two years the two sides in the Congress, have remained totally busy in resolving the problem of leadership. And senior leaders belonging to both sides have spent days and weeks in Delhi in a bid to outwit each other. The organisational activities have come to a halt and whenever public rallies or party conventions are held the leaders indulge in mud-slinging against one group or the other. And majority of Congress supporters have lost interest and are no longer prepared to keep the party flag fluttering.

The tussle between the RSS and the BJP at the national level has had its impact in Jammu and Kashmir. The result is that even the eight-member BJP legislators are as much divided as others in the organisation. Despite the fact that Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, Union Minister for Food Processing, continues to be the most influential among the party workers and supporters, his job of keeping the organisation together has been made difficult by a couple of MLAs said to be more close to the National Conference leadership than to the BJP high command.