R.M. ZUTSHI
JAMMU : With the people as well as the political parties awaiting the final election bugle from the Election Commission of India for the maiden Assembly elections in the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory, there is a lot of covert preparation for charting out the strategies to be adopted by the various political parties in fray. Since the sociopolitical scenario across this Union Territory stands totally changed today especially post Articles 370 and 35A abrogation it needs to be seen as to which party will come out victorious in the said elections. It is an acknowledged fact that this time the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory’s first Assembly election is going to be unique in many ways. While the Congress party stands totally decimated today with its fag end fragmentation and new parties having made inroads including the Aam Aadmi Party, Democratic Azad Party, Apni Party and many others the fact remains that the basic fight is going to be between the National Conference and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the rest of the parties playing a meager role in the success of either National Conference or the BJP. Given the present scenario, PDP’s political space stands already scuttled and even the National Conference that holds the distinction of sweeping the elections upto 1980s has already lost much of the political space to BJP during the past many years especially post Articles 370 and 35A abrogation.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Azad Party launched recently by the former Congress Stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad seems to have made almost no substantial impact on the political canvas of J&K as yet. While NC won maximum elections in the erstwhile J&K State on the slogan of ‘Naya Kashmir’ envisioned by the NC stalwart Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, the Bharatiya Janata Party is going to rely on the development agenda in J&K which is going on in consonance with the slogan of ‘Naya Jammu Kashmir’ envisioned by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Moreover, the ongoing developmental projects going on at an unprecedented pace across the Union Territory are making a strong impact upon the people of this traumatized region. Besides this, despite the opposition parties including NC, PDP, Congress, CPI (M), AAP, etc terming every measure initiated by the BJP Govt at the Centre and the Union Territory Administration as anti-people, the people at large especially the voters are not ready to buy this narrative. Moreover, the voters can themselves judge that terrorism has been aptly reined in by the incumbent BJP Govt at the Centre. They can see that stone pelting that was once a routine affair in the Valley has become a thing of the past and dumped into history. However, BJP will be facing anti-incumbency factor as it is virtually ruling J&K through proxy Govt led by the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha besides its decisions on liquor policy, etc having a negative impact. But these negative factors are going to have a very negligible impact on the voters during the upcoming Assembly elections. Last but not the least, the multiple rather the record number of parties expected to be in fray during this election, some of which are being labeled as BJP’s B-Parties are only going to augment the efforts and path of BJP towards victory due to unprecedented vote division expected this time. The thorough analysis of the existing facts and circumstances till date only indicates that BJP is all set to come out victorious with maximum number of seats in the aforesaid elections. However, the events to follow till the final announcement of the election schedule by the Election Commission of India will also be crucial determinants for the voters to choose the Party and Candidate of their choice.
After all the Voters are the ultimate king makers in this largest and most vibrant democracy of the world!