J&K is set to have its first assembly elections since the abrogation of Article 370 five years ago in August 2019. Stakes are high with the BJP trying to gain a majority through Jammu, while the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference (NC) will pull at the region’s emotions through regional politics. NC has formed a coalition with the Indian National Congress to keep the BJP away.
The BJP is likely to play on the rhetoric of development and extremism, while NC will throw its Kashmiri trump card of regional politics and Kashmiriyat. J&K Congress chief Tariq Hamid Karra told the media that NC will vie for 53 seats, while the INC will content 32 seats. Both parties want to push the BJP out of the region.
Congress spokesperson KC Venugopal said the Bharatiya Janata Party is destroying the soul of Jammu & Kashmir. He highlighted that Congress has allied with NC and other parties to save the valley and make a government in J&K. Venugopal believes only Congress can save the people of J&K.
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Mehbooba Mufti Disheartened with J&K Governance
Former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti has thrown in the towel. She will not be contesting the upcoming assembly election. The PDP chief said if she became the CM, she would not be able to fulfill her party’s agenda in the union territory.
About the alliance between NC and INC, Mufti said both parties have always come together for power. She recalled the alliance with Congress in 2002 whereby the PDP went onto release the late Syed Ali Geelani from prison.
In 2014, the PDP formed an alliance with the BJP and took in written from the ruling party that Article 370 will not be touched and for AFSPA to be revoked. However, in 2019 the central government revoked J&K’s special status and made it into a Union Territory in July 2020 under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.
