No saffron season

Lok Sabha results prove that making inroads in Kashmir remains an uphill task for the BJP

- TARIQ BHAT

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured hat-trick victories in Udhampur and Jammu constituencies, leading in 29 of 37 assembly segments. But, despite the success, the party’s inability to contest in constituencies in Kashmir and the emerging challenges in the Hindu-majority Jammu could complicate its efforts to win the assembly polls due later this year.

The BJP recorded a notable decline in its vote share in Udhampur and Jammu. The party also lost Ladakh, which was separated from Jammu and Kashmir and declared a Union territory after the voiding of Article 370 on August 5, 2019. The BJP’s allies in Kashmir, the Apni Party and the People’s Conference (PC), also struggled, securing just 4 per cent and 3.3 per cent of votes, respectively. Combined, the three parties received 16.4 lakh votes, or 31.7 per cent of the total votes. On the other hand, the National Conference and the Congress-led alliance that opposed the BJP got 21.45 lakh votes (41.6 per cent).

The NC’s performance, especially, underscores the BJP’s challenges. The NC won the Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituencies, even though it lost Baramulla, where party vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah was defeated by Abdul Rashid Sheikh of the Awami Ittehad Party. (Known as Engineer Rashid, Sheikh had contested from jail; he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2019 on money laundering charges.) The NC led in 34 assembly segments across the three constituencies.