AJK elections: 'Division of anti-PPP votes, bradarism help PPP emerge victorious'

The division of anti-PPP votes between Muslim Conference (MC) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) in AJK and politics of Bradarism, and grouping helped Pakistan People's Party (PPP) emerge as majority party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly to form the government.
Analysts say that the division of PPP's vote bank during the last elections was considered major reason of the party's defeat, and now the MC and PML-N have faced similar situation. The bad performance of the MC during the last 10 years was another reason of irritation and reaction among the people of Kashmir who voted against the party because of its failure to mitigate their sufferings after 2005 dreadful earthquake.
The people reportedly voted to the PPP AJK candidates, although the performance of the party in center was disappointing, to teach a lesson to Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, President MC who had been taking the voters of his home constituency for granted. Thus Attique managed to win his seat from LA-13 with slight margin while his son Usman Attique, first time contender for the Legislative Assembly, suffered defeat from a constituency of Muzaffarabad.
The party was able to win only four seats after contesting from 37 constituencies on Sunday and defeat was attributed, even by the party leaders, to the division of vote bank of the party as well as turning blind eye to the problems of people, particularly after the earthquake. It was difficult for the die-hard supporters to defend the party with such a dismal performance and internal bickering for power. The MC suffered a major blow few moths ago when a tier of top leadership, after internal politics for the office of Premier, developed serious differences with party President Sardar Attique and decided to quit the party to form PML-N chapter in Azad Kashmir.
It was expected that the PML-N would perform relatively better in Azad Kashmir after the week long election campaign by Mian Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif as well as nomination of strong candidates who have been winning the elections on MC tickets for decades.
But most of the PML-N candidates lost their seats to the rival PPP except Raja Tariq Farooq one seat from Bhimber, former Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider's two seats from Muzaffarabad division, Najeeb Nakai and Raja Naseer from Poonch and Mirpur division, respectively while remaining four seats won by the PML-N were of Kashmiri refugees in the Punjab Province.
Political analysts say politics of Bradarism, and grouping in Azad Kashmir was firmly embedded in the people considering all the aspects before casting their votes. The people divided in Abbasi and Rajput, Mughal and Normays, Syed, Sheikh and Malik bradaris some time get united and some time prefer bradari for their vested interests.