Polling has begun in 24 of the 90 constituencies in the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections. This is the first major election to be held in India after the Lok Sabha elections. Voters are casting their ballots in this region of India after more than a decade. Because this is the first election after the removal of Article 370 which gave special status to this state in 2019.
This election is very important for India’s ruling party BJP. Because history says BJP has never won any assembly seat in Kashmir Valley.
Out of the total 47 assembly seats in this valley, they have fielded candidates in Mereket in only 19 – and everyone knows that the BJP is not fighting anywhere except for one seat in Srinagar.
Even when the parliamentary elections were held in India a month ago, the BJP did not even field a candidate in any of the three constituencies in the Kashmir Valley.
Simply put, as an election-Nikesh figures, Kashmir Valley is a kind of “expense account” for Modi!
So why did BJP’s top leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi take so much risk to hold a public meeting in Srinagar for voting? What message was he aiming to convey?
The answer is that the BJP may not win any seats in Kashmir, but it may win the single largest party in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by winning the most seats in neighboring Jammu.
In that case, they will try to form a government with the support of some of the smaller parties and independent candidates from the Kashmir Valley – political observers are already predicting.
Prime Minister Modi came to Srinagar to perhaps convey that their influence in Kashmir may be limited, but the BJP is very serious about capturing power in the state!
The political formula that Modi now dreams of forming a government in the state is being described by many observers as the BJP’s ‘Mission Kashmir’ – and for many reasons.
Incidentally, Rafiq Wani, BJP’s candidate for Anantnag constituency in Kashmir and old leader of the party, made a shocking ‘confession’ while talking to a Delhi newspaper a few days ago.
In response to the question of how the BJP will form the government in the state if it does not get a single seat in the Valley, he said, there is nothing to panic – many people here are actually ‘us’!
Then he kept saying by name one by one, for example engineer Rashid is ours, Altaf Bukhari is also ours, Sajjad Lone is ours since when, Ghulam Nabi Azad is ours too!
Simply put, if the BJP’s number of seats falls short, the leaders of these small regional parties or independent candidates who won various seats will field them – this was the demand of this senior BJP leader in the Valley.
Incidentally, Baramulla’s current MP Engineer Rashid is the head of Awami Ittehad Party. Altaf Bukhari’s party is called Apay Party, besides Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sajjad Lone are the top leaders of Democratic Progress Azad Party and People’s Conference respectively.
Engineer Rashid, detained in Tihar Jail on charges of financing terrorism, got bail a few days ago and started campaigning for votes, many people are looking at the hand of BJP.
In fact, becoming the single largest party in the assembly by winning at least thirty seats from Jammu – and then forming a government with the help of small regional parties and independent candidates in Kashmir – is what political analyst and philologist Amitabh Tiwari calls the BJP’s ‘blue print’ in this election.
However, in order for small regional parties to succeed in the Kashmir Valley and win several seats, they have to do worse than the old or established parties of the valley – this is also one of the main conditions for the success of the BJP’s government-building formula or ‘Mission Kashmir’!
This is why Prime Minister Modi has been constantly attacking the National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party when he comes to Srinagar or Katra in Jammu.
Including the Congress with them, he says, these three khandans or families have been looting Kashmir for years – but now it’s time for the power to come from their hands to the common people!
When the BJP first joined the Jammu and Kashmir government ten years ago, it came to power at the hands of the Mufti family-led PDP.
But in that government they were the junior partners, got the post of Deputy Chief Minister. But this time they want to go to power as ‘senior partner’.
India currently has a total of 36 states and union territories, of which Jammu and Kashmir is the only Muslim-majority region apart from tiny Lakshadweep.
If a BJP leader is indeed sworn in as Chief Minister in Srinagar next month, it will be a truly unprecedented event for Muslim-majority Kashmir. But for the BJP, the road to reach that goal will go through Hindu-dominant Jammu!
Source: BBC Bangla
