BJP holds key to next govt in J&K

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 15

Kashmir valley voters have given their verdict, sealed in electronic voting machines till December 23. It is for the first time that they are looking which way Jammu will vote this time.

That holds the key to all permutations and combinations for the next government in this state in which the BJP is the most critical entrant.

The surprises that the NC and the Congress are promising will appear on December 23 when the results will be out. Political arithmetic is at work and the BJP has started working on that.

It is for this reason that it is pushing hard its extremist pro-Jammu agenda ahead of the fifth and last phase of polling on December 20 when 20 seats of the Jammu region will go to the polls.

The Hindutva party had made development as its swansong in the Valley and left all other issues untouched. It is now playing on the passions of the people of Jammu. It is reminding them that they and their region have been discriminated against.

Diehard supporters of the BJP in Jammu having blind faith in Narendra Modi know that the party had been silent on Article 370 and discrimination against Jammu for tactical reasons.

“The issues are there and we know it,” says Sajjan Kumar, who runs an eatery in Akhnoor. “You will hear the party talk about it now,” he says. He is right because the party had been telling its cadre in Jammu that no issue had been shelved. BJP candidates have told their supporters that they were silent only till elections in Kashmir.

A whispering campaign is going on in Jammu. The areas are mostly Hindu-dominated parts of Jammu. The campaign is based on discrimination against Jammu with a strong Hindutva push.

Is Kashmir crucial for the BJP to form the government in J&K or is the BJP a must for Kashmir-centric parties to form the government?

It is because despite their push the three major parties, the PDP, the NC and the BJP, are nowhere close to making it to the magic figure of 44. The Congress, which is being written off, has the capacity to spring a surprise to the shock of its political rivals, particularly the BJP.

Kashmir has two crystal clear opinions about the BJP. One is that it is a party that will never change its colour. Re-conversions in UP have reinforced fears in Muslim-majority Kashmir. Voters are helpless because the BJP is unveiling its true colour in Jammu while voting is over in the Valley.

The second is a positive view that the BJP has control over power and funds at the Centre and hence, can help in development in Kashmir.

Valley residents had come out in large numbers to vote to stop the political march of the BJP in Kashmir. They are aware of the fact that their own regional leadership is weak and will fall for loaves of power in the garb of pragmatism. Practicality means sharing power with the BJP.

Their logic is that if the NC can survive after being a part of the NDA, others can as well. It is here that the BJP knows where it has a chance to lead the government or be a part of it.