Ahead of Phase-III, parties shift focus to Hindu-dominated areas

With the third and final phase of Assembly elections in J&K scheduled on October 1, the focus of all political parties, especially the BJP and the Congress, has been shifted to four Hindu-dominated districts of the Jammu region.

The final phase of the elections will be held in four districts of Udhampur, Jammu, Samba and Kathua comprising of 24 constituencies, besides Kashmir.

West Pakistani refugees living in border areas of Jammu, Samba and Kathua will vote for the first time in the Assembly elections. So, parties are leaving no stone unturned to woo them.

The BJP is reminding them of the abrogation of Article 370, which made their way clear to vote in the Assembly elections. While several constituencies in Udhampur and Kathua are dominated by Rajputs and Brahmins, there are others, including Samba and Jammu, which have dominance of Dalits on many seats.

Caste is set to play a major role in the final phase of the elections. Seven seats - Ramnagar in Udhampur, Kathua in Kathua district, Ramgarh in Samba, Bishnah, Suchetgarh, Marh and Akhnoor in Jammu district - which will also go to the polls - have been reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC). While the BJP has doing aggressive campaigning for the past few days to woo different communities, the Congress seems to be out of race in terms of the electioneering. A few senior party leaders have visited Jammu areas. However, Priyanka Gandhi is scheduled to hold rallies in the region on September 28.

Bharatsinh Solanki, All-India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of J&K, said: “The BJP has deployed its top leaders, including the Prime Minister, Home Minister, Defence Minister and the UP Chief Minister to desperately cling to power by any means necessary”.

The BJP had won a majority of seats in these four districts of the Jammu region during the 2014 Assembly elections. The saffron party is aggressively campaigning to get enough seats so that it can be in the game of government formation. From threat of terrorism and corruption to Ram Mandir, the BJP is raising all issues during its campaign for the next phase.

Devender Rana, who is the BJP candidate from the Nagrota Assembly constituency, said: “The NC-Congress alliance is providing oxygen to secessionist forces, who stand alienated, annihilated and rejected by the people of Kashmir in particular to consolidate peace heralded since 2019. The alliance seems to have a sort of aversion with booming terrorism and humming socio-economic activities, understandably so because of their sustenance ingrained in politics over deaths and destruction”.