JAMMU: A buzz is on in Jammu and Kashmir, how will it fare after the 2024 Assembly polls . This is paradoxically rooted in the simultaneous hope and despair at the possible outcome of the elections as no one is certain about the results, who all will be winners and losers . Everything will depend on the parties gaining power and those missing it . The concern is that it may result in a hung house, resulting in a coalition government. Various likely possibilities are already in motion, as the parties are not sure whether they can hope for a clear majority in the House of 90 .The possibility of a coalition government coming up as a result of pre-poll or post-poll combinations is a scary scenario for J&K . The past experience has been quite bitter . This was bitter in politics but it also cast several dark shadows on the State, which is now a Union Territory. The fact of the matter is that dark shadows have not been lifted completely and there are signs of such dark eras returning with the political parties engaging in a crude battle over the future of J&K.
POLITICAL PULSE
It’s time BJP to understand the dynamics of what is at stake for it. The party will have to prove that it is different . It should show itself in a different frame than other parties. The 2024 polls are different from that of 2014 when BJP was seeking to upgrade its political and electoral status from 11 seats of 2008 elections – the party had been able to win 11 seats because of its stellar role in being at the core of Amarnath land row agitation . The mass movement against the breach of faith caused by the then Government in Jammu and Kashmir was a rude shock to the majority community of Jammu. The agitation was a clear warning to the then Government, ” enough is enough.”
Much water has flown down Tawi river since . It was able to win 25 seats in 2014 polls. The political dividends were delivered to the party because of Modi wave that was sweeping the country , and the commitment of the party to do justice to Jammu region , ending decades of discrimination. The campaign was successful as the party stalwart Ram Madhav was behind the minute-to-minute planning , and BJP had chosen some fresh faces for the contest . Now it should eye Jhelum waters . The 2014 was a disappointing experience for the party when it drew blank in electoral battles, but now it has done so much , it must adopt waves of Jhelum to achieve what was not in 2014. It is more than that , as PM Narendra Modi said, wining hearts and minds of the people.
After the delimitation of constituencies, Jammu has 43 seats , only four short of the Valley , the party has to go in for contest in all these seats to claim its primary position . That is a tough call . It would not have been so had the things been handled carefully . The party leadership at the national level was always keen to push for a formidable narrative and action in Jammu and Kashmir to transform the land and its residents . It did everything to furbish the image of the nation in the UT to foster complete integration of J&K with the rest of the country . Many a spectacular events, like G 20 were held in Srinagar in May 2023 , stirring new hopes to the people for whom the foreign diplomats gathering for prestigious international event existed in dreams. The Modi government transformed those dreams into reality.
As Party General Secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Tarun Chugh observed and shared it with the party cadre and others , that what Modi government has dome for J&K before and after the abrogation of Article 370 is unprecedented . Most of the focus has been on empowering the marginalized sections in Jammu and Kashmir through the social justice mechanism of the government . This fact is essence of the post August5, 2019 history. The constitutional alternation was given. A humanitarian touch . It is being felt and the beneficiaries have expressed their gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi , Home Minister Amit Shah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha . There is much more that has not been broadcast till date . The party needs to put that on the sound track. BJP alone can turn the tide in favour of the country in J&K, and this election is an opportunity that it must seize.
