With the Election Commission announcing the schedule for the longest-ever election to the 87-member legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, political parties are nervous about the impact of the recent agitation on the Amarnath land row on their fortunes.
Predictably, the separatist Hurriyat Conference quickly announced its plans to boycott the polls.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said, “A low turnout is a strong possibility, particularly in Srinagar.’’ However, Omar welcomed the EC’s announcement. Omar’s arch rival Mehbooba Mufti’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) did not show the same enthusiasm for the election. A spokesman of the PDP, which was the only party to oppose the November-December schedule of the election, said, “The party would take a decision on participation after consultations.”
The Congress party is as much nervous as it fears a backlash against the Ghulam Nabi Azad government’s mishandling of the Amarnath land row in June.
The BJP is the only party which is looking at the election as a win-win situation. The party hopes to gain support because of its clear stand on the land row. It had one member in the dissolved J&K Assembly. “We hope to sweep in the Jammu region, barring the Muslim-dominated constituencies in the Rajouri-Poonch and Doda districts, this time,’’ a BJP leader said.
Analysts, however, say the PDP stands to lose support in case the voters decide to punish it for the ‘dubious’ role played in bringing J&K to the brink in June-July. The party’s two senior ministers in the Azad government had signed the land papers before the party backtracked and jumped into the separatist bandwagon to demand withdrawal of the same.
“The outcome of this election would be particularly crucial for the future of the PDP and Mehbooba Mufti,’’ an analyst told Business Standard.
