Elections in sight, parties target one another over 'closeness with BJP'

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, May 13

With Lok Sabha and urban local bodies’ polls in sight, most of the political parties in Kashmir have started targeting each other for allegedly hobnobbing with the BJP.

Parties including National Conference, J&K People’s Conference (JKPC), Apni Party and Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) have accused each other in the recent past of being close to the BJP which is blamed by many in Valley for abrogating Article 370 and dividing the erstwhile state into two Union Territories.

The mudslinging is being done in a tactical way to damage the prospects of the opponents by triggering doubts among common masses about their closeness with the saffron party in Muslim-dominated Kashmir. The attacks have increased ever since reports started doing the rounds that the urban local bodies’ polls will be held in the UT late this year. The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled for next year.

While Farooq Abdullah-led NC and Sajad Lone-led JKPC have accused each other of being close to the BJP, Ghulam Nabi Azad’s DPAP and Altaf Bukhari-led Apni Party have faced the allegations of being the B-team of the BJP.

Lone accused the NC of being in talks with the BJP and trying to forge an alliance with the party. Rejecting the claims, the NC has alleged that Lone is “trying to whitewash his own ties with the BJP and the RSS”.

Interestingly, the NC was an alliance partner of the BJP over two decades ago in the Centre and Sajad Lone got a cabinet berth from the BJP quota during BJP-PDP alliance in J&K in 2015.

Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari has said the PDP is close to the saffron party. “The BJP won 25 Assembly seats from Jammu in 2014 elections, but formed the government with the PDP, betraying the sentiments of the people. The Apni Party should be given a chance to form the next government,” he said.

The PDP has also been accused by other Kashmir-based political parties for strengthening the BJP in J&K by sharing power with it after 2014 Assembly elections.