New Delhi: If polarisation was one of the main factors for the BJP to expand its presence in the Jammu region, it was also the primary reason why the saffron party failed to open its account in the Kashmir Valley, which was the main focus of its entire election campaign for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
The BJP emerged as the second-largest party in Jammu and Kashmir with 25 seats but failed to gain a foothold in the Valley, which has 47 out of the total 87 Assembly constituencies in the state.
The BJP had given Mission 44-plus slogan in the region and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was its star campaigner, who had aggressively campaigned in the entire state.
BJP’s poll managers maintain that it was the “fear” of the saffron party coming to power in the Kashmir Valley that forced majority of the population in the region to vote against it.
The party’s poll managers also conceded that the party’s main poll planks of good governance and development failed to impress the voters in the region, where separatists also have a major influence.
Also, the BJP hardly has any organisational structure in the Valley and therefore, its candidates could not gather much support in the region. This, despite the BJP fielding 25 Muslim candidates from the Valley. The recent controversial remarks by some BJP leaders as well as the conversion row also affected the BJP’s poll prospects in the state.
Also, the strong anti-incumbency factor against the National Conference (NC) benefited the PDP and not the BJP, which was projecting itself as the alternative by attacking both the NC and the PDP in its election campaign.
The loss of two seats in the Ladakh region — Leh and Nubra — has also upset the BJP’s poll calculations, as the party was confident of winning these two seats.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led the BJP’s charge in the state, its “Mission 44+” has failed to fructify.
Besides its own 25 seats, the BJP will have two more from ally Sajad Gani Lone’s Peoples’ Conference, making it almost neck and neck with the PDP. The results have, therefore, given a fillip to the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The next few days will be critical in the state’s politics. After the final tally is on the board, political parties have already begun talks towards finding reliable allies, though officially they are keeping their cards close to their chest.
