No candidates, yet why BJP looks very much a part of Lok Sabha polls in Kashmir
Raina subsequently was expecting the central BJP to declare a candidate for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat in Kashmir. Instead, he received a call that BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh was headed for Jammu. Raina and his J&K BJP colleagues soon got the shocker that the party would not be nominating candidates for the three parliamentary seats in the Kashmir ValleyâAnantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar and Baramulla. These are the only three seats among the total 543 across India where neither the BJP nor any of its pre-poll allies are in the fray.
The general elections are the first major polls in J&K since the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019 and downgrading of the state into a Union territory. Polling was held in Anantnag-Rajouri for May 7, and is scheduled in Srinagar on May 13 and Baramulla on May 20. Voting in Udhampur and Jammu was held on April 19 and April 26, respectively.
The Narendra Modi government had made several political and strategic moves in the run-up to the abrogation of Article 370. Post-August 2019, the government has been moving cautiously to change several archaic laws and norms. The sense within the BJP is that this may have angered certain elites in Kashmir, and that the party fielding candidates in the Valley could have security implications, besides rivals getting an opportunity to polarise the elections against the BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP candidates had lost deposits in all three seats in Kashmir.
Former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah of the NC believes the BJP is very much part of the electoral process this time. Omar is contesting from Baramulla, where he is being challenged by the PDP’s Fayaz Mir and Sajjad Gani Lone of the J&K People’s Conference. Abdullah considers Lone a BJP proxy, a charge Lone denies.
Similarly, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti is wary that the BJP is supporting Altaf Bukhari’s J&K Apni Party against her in Anantnag-Rajouri. The Apni Party has fielded Zaffar Iqbal Manhas from the seat. Bukhari is supporting Sajjad Lone in Baramulla in return for Lone’s support for his candidates Manhas in Anantnag-Rajouri and Mohammad Ashraf Mir in Srinagar.
Campaigning for the BJP around the country, Prime Minister Modi, Shah and party chief J.P. Nadda don’t forget to highlight the change in the ground situation in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370. In the Valley, though, the Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti paint the BJP as the villain and refer to the Bukhari-Lone alliance as BJP proxies at play.
After the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and many other political leaders from Kashmir were placed under long house arrest. Upon release, their parties formed the Gupkar Alliance to oppose the BJP in the Kashmir. However, the NC and PDP parted ways to contest the Lok Sabha polls independently. In the Hindu-majority Jammu region, these parties are backing the Congress.
Both Bukhari and Lone have publicly denied having any truck with the BJP and pointed to the NC and PDP being BJP allies in the past.
Speaking about the BJP’s measured approach in Kashmir, a top party leader told INDIA TODAY that the BJP has developed considerable support on the ground, having added a million members from the three Lok Sabha seats in the Valley. “The leadership cautiously and consciously decided not to contest the polls in Kashmir this time. It is part of our strategy,” said the leader, on condition of anonymity.
He added that the Modi government had worked hard to scale up J&K’s economy and develop a market for its products. “We are asking our cadre and core voters to vote in these three parliamentary constituencies as per their own conscience,” said the leader, adding a rider that they must not vote for the NC and PDP.
A top security analyst well versed with Kashmir told INDIA TODAY that the Lok Sabha polls could put the nuts and bolts in place for assembly polls in J&K in the near future. And as another top BJP leader, quoting Shah’s remark in Reasi that the BJP was not out to “conquer” Kashmir but to “win every heart”, said: “For the BJP, the nation comes first; the party is secondary. We are not afraid of making any sacrifice for the country.”
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