By KO Political Desk
Srinagar- As the counting of votes ends by Tuesday afternoon, it is likely to throw up two potential outcomes:, one, the NC-Congress securing the majority of seats as predicted by the exit polls. And second, the BJP winning the majority of seats in Jammu, positioning it as a strong contender for forming the government with the support of independents.
The probability of the first outcome is more as the NC-Congress could also bank on the support from the smaller parties in Kashmir Valley. It is anticipated that the PDP which is expected to bag several seats in its South Kashmir bastion might join this coalition. There are already some straws in the air suggesting the likelihood of such a possibility. The NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah has welcomed the prospect of the PDP being part of the government formation.
“Why not? How does it matter? If we all work for the same thing, for improvement in the conditions of the people of the state, removing unemployment, removing all the distresses that have occurred in the last 10 years,” Abdullah responded to questions about the PDP joining the coalition government. “We can be rivals in elections, but I have no objections, and I am sure Congress will have no objections.”
However, the BJP has made no secret of its intentions to do everything to form the next government. Hoping to achieve a decent total in Jammu, it hopes to cobble together a majority with the potential support of the smaller parties and the independents, especially from the Kashmir Valley.
Congress has already warned of such a possibility, and accused the BJP of trying to subvert the mandate in the union territory.
“There is a clear danger to the people’s mandate in J&K. The INC-NC alliance is on the way to a historic victory, but the BJP is not ready to digest the democratic verdict and is planning to subvert this through any and all means available at its disposal,” Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said in a post on X. “We are vigilant to all their dirty tricks and will not let them hijack our democracy. The misuse of institutions and the Centre’s powers to alter the mandate will not be tolerated.”
Although unlike 2014 when the BJP’s poll-plank was ‘44-plus’ seats to form the government in the then 83 Assembly house, the saffron party made no such pitch this time. But the party hopes to better its tally than the 25 seats that it garnered in 2014. It could very well do better this time in the now 90 seat Assembly, more so after the delimitation of the last year which is believed to have increased the Hindu majority areas of the Jammu division.
If the BJP gets 30 seats or thereabouts, it could be in a position to not just form a government in coalition with a Kashmir party or a group of independent but could very well have a chief minister of its own, in all probability J&K’s first Hindu chief minister. But if it falls under 20, and the Congress does well, then the BJP will have no option but to settle for a position of an opposition party.
So which way things are probably headed? It is still uncertain. There was no visible wave in favour of any party in the union territory, including the BJP. This creates the possibility of an outcome which could even go contrary to exit polls. For now, we can only keep fingers crossed and wait for things to clear up by Tuesday evening.
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