Srinagar: Political buzz permeates Jammu and Kashmir as parties ramp up campaigning efforts and engage with people across the UT for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, likely to be succeeded by assembly elections. Political parties have been actively engaging in the strategic task of candidate selection and alliance formation.
While the INDIA bloc alliance is looking forward to keeping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at bay, the ruling party at the same time has launched a full fledged campaign in all the districts of the J&K.
The BJP, according to sources, is eyeing on all the five parliamentary seats in the Union territory and will contest without any alliance. The BJP has opened six election offices in the five constituencies of J&K where the leaders will reach-out to the people for elections.
The five constituencies in J&K are Baramulla, Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri, Udhampur and Jammu.
In a significant move to engage with the public and gauge their opinions, the BJP has launched an extensive campaign in Jammu and Kashmir.Led by Tarun Chugh, the party’s national General Secretary in-charge, BJP aims to incorporate public feedback into its resolution letters and election strategies.
The party leadership in J&K is in constant touch with the BJP leadership in New Delhi. “The list of candidates has been sent to the parliamentary panel of BJP and final call is expected shortly so that candidates are given time to campaign,” a senior BJP leader said on Tuesday.
He said BJP is confident to bag all three seats in Kashmir. “Joining of prominent faces has given a new impetus to the party and more influential and protuberant people are in the list to join the party in the days ahead,” the leader said.
J&K Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Ravinder Raina on Wednesday, in a presser at the party office Jammu said, “We hope that the people will vote for the party overwhelmingly and give all six seats to the BJP as a return gift to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has ensured unprecedented all-inclusive development of J&K, following his dictum of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas Aur Sabka Vishwas.”
Media reports earlier this week said that Jammu and Kashmir BJP has finalised the panel of candidates for the three crucial seats from Kashmir as the list of probable candidates have been forwarded to the head office where the party’s Parliamentary affairs panel will soon take a final call.
BJP UT spokesman Altaf Thakur also said that BJP is confident in winning all the seats in Jammu and Kashmir and that’s why they decided to go solo in the elections.
“Look at the developmental activities that PM Modi has done in the UT. People are appreciating it and they want BJP to win the elections,” Thakur said.
He further added that post abrogation of Article 370, the peace has permanently returned and people of J&K are reping benefits for it.
“PM Modi gave gold cards, dozens of schemes. Connected Kashmir to the rest of the country. The people are happy with the BJP government and they will ensure that we get all the seats,” he added.
Dr Pardeep Mahotra, BJP Media Secretary, J&K argued that the narrative portraying the BJP as anti-Muslim, propagated by certain regional parties in the region, has been dispelled. He highlights the party’s successful efforts in engaging with the Muslim community, effectively debunking the falsehoods surrounding the BJP’s stance toward Muslims.
“We have given equal opportunities to everyone irrespective of religion. Our office headquarters at Trikuta Nagar, Jammu has a huge rush of Muslim community,” Mahotra told Kashmir Observer.
He added that BJP will not form a pre-poll alliance with any party for parliamentary elections, however in assembly election, the party senior leadership will take a call for a post-poll alliance.
Mahotra further added that while the Jammu region will be easy for the saffron party, the muslim-majority Kashmir region will be challenging for them.
“But, we are confident that we will win all the seats from Kashmir as well,” he added
However, media reports also say that Muzaffar Baig, with potential backing from the BJP, is reportedly considering running as an Independent candidate in either Baramulla or Anantnag.
Despite recently rejoining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Baig surprised many by attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public rally in Jammu and publicly distancing himself from the party. Baig previously stated he had not officially left the PDP but had been relatively inactive. The government’s recent decision to grant Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Pahari community in Jammu and Kashmir is expected to garner significant support forBaig, a Pahari himself.Earlier, National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah had also said the party will contest all five Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha seats independently. However, later, Omar Abdullah clarified that his party remains a member of the Opposition INDIA bloc.
National Conference is in talks with INDIA bloc partner Congress on seat sharing arrangements in Jammu and Ladakh region. NC had won Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag seats and BJP was victorious in Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh in the 2019 general elections, and NC seems in no intention of conceding any of its already held seats.
“Why should we surrender a seat? The aim of the INDIA alliance is to reduce the seats of BJP and not reduce the seats of INDIA alliance members. We are discussing only three seats,” Abdullah said.
He said there has been only one round of discussions in New Delhi recently on the seat-sharing agreement among the INDIA bloc partners and they are going to hold a second round of talks soon.
The Congress on Thursday said its alliance with the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir for the forthcoming parliamentary polls would be sealed and announced by next week.
“INDIA bloc will fight the elections with its full might… In J&K, you will get good news in the coming few days that Congress, NC and PDP have done seat-sharing and we will fight the election jointly. We will fight with full might and achieve a clean sweep,” JK Pradesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani told reporters.
“Any party can say it wants to contest as many seats, but we only have six seats including Ladakh. So when an alliance takes place, final talks happen and seat-sharing is done. Wherever a particular party contests, the other two parties will give full support,” he added.
Few days ago, the Peoples Conference announced that Party chief Sajad Lone would contest the Parliamentary polls from north Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency.
Notably, Lieutenant Governor of J&k, Manoj Sinha on Tuesday said the government is committed to conduct assembly polls before September.
The last assembly elections took place in 2014 which was dissolved in June 2018 after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support from its coalition partner—People’s Democratic Party. Since then the region is without local government and is being run directly from New Delhi.
With revocation of special status on 5 August, 2019 the BJP led government at the Center has entirely changed the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir and made significant inroads in the valley. The BJP leadership has made it clear that J&K will have an Hindu CM.
The upcoming elections are significant, particularly in light of the constitutional changes implemented by the BJP-led government.
Political pundits in the valley argue that upcoming elections will be the most interesting elections in the history of Kashmir, particularly in shaping the political direction of Kashmir.
A win for the BJP would validate the decision made on August 5th, whereas a defeat would signal discontent among the populace to the nation.
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