Modi's BJP Confident of Opening Account in Kashmir After Elections Next Year

Days after Indian Home Minister Amit Shah at a public rally stated that the long-delayed elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held soon, the BJP now seems confident in making the region one of its political strongholds.

In 2015, the BJP was able to form a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir — the first time in its history, winning 25 seats in the Jammu division of the erstwhile state. To form a government, it had to form a coalition with the region's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which won 28 seats out of the total 87 in J&K.

In an interview with Sputnik, senior BJP politician and former Cabinet minister of the Jammu and Kashmir government Sunil Sharma expressed confidence that “for the first time in the history of Kashmir, the BJP will open its account in Kashmir in terms of seats,” thanks to PM Modi's policies that have benefited the poor.

As elections could already take place in March or April next year, Sharma said that "as far as the BJP and Kashmir are concerned, people have a lot of hopes pinned with the party. People are enthusiastic about joining the party."

Sharma and his party colleagues have intensified their activities in Kashmir by visiting various constituencies in the last two weeks.

“I assure you that we will perform well here because the policies of honorable Narendra Modi benefit the poor. Local population of Kashmir has rejected the politics of two families [ed.: former state chiefs Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti]. We have hopes that we will perform well and win many seats in Kashmir,” he said.

It's worth noting that the region has never elected a non-Muslim or a resident of the Hindu majority Jammu region as its state chief — all state chiefs have come from the Muslim-majority Kashmir region.

Speaking about regional political parties, namely the National Conference (of Abdullah) and Peoples Democratic Party (of Mufti), Sharma said that they are exploiting the issue of J&K’s special status, which was revoked by the federal government in August 2019. The government's main reason for revoking Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy was cited as the need to eliminate the threat of terror, which was hindering economic and social development in the region.

"They are misusing Article 370 to get votes. People here will vote on issues other than article 370, like development,” Sharma said.

Meanwhile, Kashmiris are voting not only on this issue, since there are other problems locals are worried about — like poverty and access to healthcare. These need to be solved, Sharma says.

The BJP politician also looked quite optimistic in suggesting that the arrival of former veteran Congress politician Ghulam Nabi Azad, who left Congress and founded the Democratic Azad Party last month, will not pose a challenge to the BJP in the next elections.