J&K parties jittery over BJP’s Mission 44+ plan
BJP President Amit Shah during the inauguration programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Parliamentary office in Varanasi-PTI
Amit Shah will begin J&K visit on Monday; NC talks to Congress
The BJP’s “Mission J&K 44+” has caused quite a few ripples among the state’s mainstream political parties. BJP chief Amit Shah begins a visit to the state Monday, when he is due to address a rally in Kathua district of the Jammu region.
The leaders of other parties hit the panic button though chief minister Omar Abdullah, also working president of the National Conference, ruled out any possibility of the BJP achieving its target of winning 44 of the state’s 87 effective Assembly seats, giving it a majority. Mr Shah had earlier declared that his aim is to install a BJP chief minister in Srinagar.
The NC as well as the Congress are not leaving any stone unturned to defeat the BJP’s ambitious plan. While the two have already decided to fight the polls separately, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and some other senior leaders, as well as those of the NC, are reportedly keen on working out a strategy solely to frustrate the BJP’s Kashmir plans without making it public.
The BJP, on the other hand, is going all out to translate its “Dilli howi hamari; Ab Kashmir ki bari” dream into reality. To consolidate its gains in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the Jammu and Ladakh regions, where it won all three seats, party leaders are working overtime to make it a force to reckon with before the Assembly elections. For this, it has launched a massive enrolment campaign of all eligible Kashmiri pandits. It is also eager to make inroads in the Muslim-majority Valley to improve its tally.
In the 2008 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 11 of 37 seats in the Jammu region, but none in the Valley (46 seats) or in Ladakh (four seats).
BJP sources said its leaders would visit every Assembly segment in the Valley, Jammu and Ladakh regions as part of its “Parivartan Yatra”.
As reported before, BJP leaders have held a series of secret meetings with potential local allies. Besides trying to find out the “strongest possible” candidates for most seats, the BJP is also trying to woo those who can contest as Independents in seats in the Valley and Jammu areas with a sizeable Muslim population who can command a large chunk of votes. This is part of a plan to use proxies in order to split the committed anti-BJP vote, which it believes may help it realise its seemingly-impossible dream of forming a government on its own in the state.
The party leadership is already confident that, following its impressive victory in the Lok Sabha elections, it is no longer politically untouchable as in the past in Valley areas. “People are coming closer to it in Valley areas, that the BJP’s state and central leaders see as a encouraging sign,” a source said.
In the Kashmir Valley, with 46 seats, the BJP is banking mainly on a division of the vote, whereas in Ladakh, that has four seats, it is hopeful of bagging at least two of them (Leh and Zanskar two Buddhist-dominated regions).
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