Two Worlds

Jammu and Kashmir is not just a state, it is a dichotomy. Nothing illustrates this better than the contrasting fortunes of the BJP in the two reg­ions. Jammu is an old saffron fortress, and the BJP will be going ahead with the predictable, emotive themes it uses elsewhere바카라�바카라�national security바카라� has a high resonance in this border region, and the Modi factor plays right into that. Add the 바카라�deportation of Rohingya Muslims바카라�, and you have it pat. In Kashmir, though, the party finds itself unable to mouth the hawkish slogans about Kashmir that it deploys nationa­lly­바카라�issues like the removal of Articles 370 and 35-A바카라�so it presents a more moderate face. But when even homegrown parties like the National Conf­erence and the PDP find their popular acceptability shrinking, can India바카라�s most hardline party have any traction at all?

One finds the three BJP candidates from the Valley바카라�Khalid Jehangir, Sofi Yousuf and Maqbool War바카라�restricting their rhetoric to the 바카라�developmental agenda바카라�, citing a lot of initiatives by the BJP as part of the coalition that ruled J&K for four years. 바카라�We have given five lakh gas connections in the Valley,바카라� says 59-year-old War. Jehangir, 43, says it was only the PDP바카라�s 바카라�divisive agenda바카라� that derailed its schemes.

This is a case-study of an extreme situation, of course. The BJP바카라�s voteshare in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was around 1.4 per cent. It hasn바카라�t won any assembly or parliamentary seat in the Valley바카라�s electoral history. It did win 100 wards in the civic polls last Octo­ber­, which saw the lowest turnout ever (1.6 per cent)­ with only 660 of the total 40,004 voters in 20 municipalities across the four south Kashmir distri­cts of Shopian, Kulgam, Anantnag and Pulwama turning up. A boycott by the PDP-NC meant 76 wards had no other candidates. The Shopian municipal committee is now headed by the BJP바카라�it actually imported candidates from Jammu! Jehangir, who says the turnout will be higher this time as the big parties are contesting, may take on Farooq Abdullah. 바카라�I will bridge the gap between Delhi and Srinagar,바카라� he says, bullishly. But a rally on March 14 left BJP leaders like national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna embarrassed.  The thin attendance was one thing바카라�worse, the BJP workers who did land up hid their faces from cameras.

By Naseer Ganai in Srinagar