BJP fails to attract huge crowd at election rallies, uses media to woo voters in Kashmir

Srinagar: To accomplish 'Mission-44 plus' in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, which is impossible without opening account in the Muslim majority Kashmir Valley, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to use local leading newspapers to woo the voters in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Notwithstanding the stunning performance of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, no Modi wave was visible during the Parliamentary elections in Kashmir as its candidates from Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla together got only 15,845 votes in Lok Sabha elections while the party nominees got 15,650 votes during 2008 Assembly elections.

The BJP, which has decided to put up maximum candidates in Kashmir to achieve the target of 44 plus in the state, is using English and Urdu dailies of the Valley to reach out to voters, as its candidates so far have not been able to draw large crowds as witnessed in the elections rallies of other regional political parties.

A full front page advertisement appeared in some of the leading newspaper of the valley with a photograph of Modi, besides an appeal in Urdu "Jammu aur Kashmir kay badlay Halaath, Chalo Chalan Modi Kay Saath (Let us change Jammu and Kashmir, let us march with Narendra Modi)".

Trying to make an inroad in the Valley, which holds a key to the government formation in the state, a number of senior BJP leaders, including Ram Madhav, former Punjab Police chief PS Gill, who served in Kashmir for more than 25 years in police, are meetings local leaders in Kashmir.

However, the issue of Article 370 in the BJP manifesto could play a spoil sport for their candidates who are trying to convenience people that their party is not anti-Kashmir and it will not abrogate the Article.

Recently BJP nominee for Amira Kadal constituency Dr Hina Bhat, daughter of Mohammad Shafi Bhat, who represented Srinagar Lok Sabha seat once and Amira Kadal constituency twice on NC ticket, said nobody can touch Article 370. Hina even said that she will pick up a gun if anything was done to this Article, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the statement was taken very seriously by Sangh Parivar, which has demanded action against Hina. BJP has not reacted so far.

Refusing to get drawn into any controversy over Article 370, Union Minister of State General (retd) VK Singh, who is currently in Kashmir Valley, said BJP wants a discussion on various things for the benefit of the people.

BJP this time is eyeing votes of Kashmiri Pandits to bag five Assembly seats - Habbakadal, Amirakadal, Sopore, Khanyar and Tral - in the Valley. The saffron party is hopeful that if the polling percentage of the Muslim voters is low in these areas following an election boycott call given by separatist leaders, Kashmiri Pandits can help in securing these five seats for the saffron party.

Among these five seats, BJP has contested on three in 2008 Assembly elections. However, the performance was not reassuring.

In Amira Kadal constituency, which saw a voter turnout of 14.98 per cent in the 2008 Assembly election, BJP secured just 149 votes and ended on 11th position. In Habbakadal, which saw a voter turnout of 11.62, the BJP was a distant second with 671 votes.

In Tral constituency in north Kashmir district of Baramulla, which recorded a voter turnout of 48 per cent, BJP bagged 16th position with 338 votes. Interestingly BJP has fielded Sardar Avtar Singh from Tral, a move which many believe is to woo Sikh community voters along with Kashmiri Pandits. Meanwhile, the party is trying its luck for the first time in Khanyar (17.41 per cent voter turnout in 2008) and Sopore (19.95 per cent).

Meanwhile, hitting out at the saffron party, the PDP alleged that the BJP is using proxies to divide majority vote in Jammu and Kashmir. "Whether it is so-called Third Front or some other pocket-sized politicians in Kashmir, all of them have become BJP's paid cronies to facilitate the saffron party implement its dangerous agenda of divide-and-rule in J&K," senior PDP leader and Member Parliament (MP) Tariq Hameed Karra said.

Karra said unfortunately BJP and RSS have started resorting to communal and polarising tactics in the highly sensitive Chenab Valley and Poonch-Rajouri belt of the state to divide people on religious and ethnic lines for electoral gains. "The divisive politics has its own perilous consequences and such tactics could prove dangerous for the State in the long run," he said.

(Abid Soffi is Managing Editor, Kashmir Pioneer and he lives in Srinagar.)