The Bharatiya Janata Party’s twin poll planks — abrogation of Article 370 and restoration of normalcy — are on test in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election. While the move has found no traction in the Kashmir Valley, the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, which had initially cheered this move, is having second thoughts about it. The BJP’s core voters are unhappy as it has failed to fulfil its promise on land rights and job quotas.
Questions are also being asked about the Narendra Modi government’s claims of improving security in the state following the spurt of terrorist attacks in Jammu’s border areas. Despite these odds, the BJP is banking on winning a sufficient number of seats in Jammu only because the Congress has not been able to take advantage of the disgruntlement among the people. The Kashmir Valley remains out of bounds for the BJP, evident from the fact that it is contesting only 19 of the 47 seats in this region.
It is against this backdrop that the emergence of a large number of independent candidates and the entry of separatist leader Rashid Engineer is being viewed with suspicion. The overwhelming view is that the current political mess suits the BJP as a fractured mandate would be reason enough to continue with the President's rule in the border state. As expected, leaders and candidates of different political parties are going all out to attack their rivals during the ongoing poll campaign in Haryana.
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