The Bharatiya Janata Party was banking heavily on migrant Kashmiri Pandit votes and a poll boycott called by separatists to take its tally to unprecedented levels in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. But the fourth of the five-phase elections seemingly belied their hopes.
In the fourth phase last Sunday, 18 of the 87 Assembly constituencies went to the polls. Sixteen of these were in the Kashmir division, including eight in Srinagar. While the average voter turnout in the 18 Assembly segments was 49%, in Srinagar the figure reached 28% – the highest since violence exploded in the region in the late 1980s.
The BJP had invested strong hope in Srinagar district, which has a significant number of Pandit migrants living in other parts of India. And their optimism was not completely unreasonable.
A strong bastion of the ruling National Conference, the district had voted overwhelmingly for change in the form of the People’s Democratic Party in the general elections. In fact, all three Lok Sabha constituencies in the Kashmir division had plumped for PDP instead of the National Conference.
Soaring aspirations
Aspiring to ride this anti-incumbency wave with the support of Kashmiri Pandits, the BJP had fielded Dr Hina Bhat in Amira Kadal, Moti Kaul in Habba Kadal, and Ashok Kumar Bhat in Khanyar.
The saffron party’s enthusiasm was evidently not reciprocated.
Sanjay Tickoo, chairman of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (a socio-political organisation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley), believed the voter turnout was higher than in previous years because of the anti-incumbency and to stop the BJP from winning seats.
“Kashmiri Pandit voters are in strong numbers in Habba Kadal, Amira Kadal and Khanyar, and they could have voted for the BJP,” said Tickoo, one of the Pandits who did not migrate to Jammu in the 1990s. But he asserted that the voters did not.
Decades of apathy
Despite BJP’s high-octane campaign in the Jammu and Kashmir elections, its image in the state is still shadowed by its position on Article 370, its anti-minoritism and the 2002 Gujarat riots. This was on display at a recent rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar. Compared to the crowds he pulls in in other parts of the country, the attendance at the Srinagar rally was middling.
Kashmiri Pandits felt alienated from the party. They pointed out that Modi made no mention of the community at the Srinagar rally. “He also did not talk about Pakistan,” said Tickoo. “His speech was seen as an attempt to woo the majority community voters, which is a hard task to begin with.”
Forty-year-old Kamlesh Parimoo in Habba Kadal said he had never voted, not even in these elections. “Most Pandits do not vote here because the government has not done anything for us,” said Parimoo, an employee of the state education department. “This is not due to any threat, this is our decision. We have been here for the last 40 years and we have not seen any elected politician.”
Wrong calculations
Even if the BJP manages the colossal task of coming to power in Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits felt it will not benefit their community.
“Everyone is educated here and people know what is good for them,” said Parimoo.
The eight assembly constituencies of Srinagar that went to the polls in the fourth phase had 30,364 potential Pandit voters, but 9,638 of them were registered. Among these registered voters, only 5,169 actually came cast their ballots. Across the state, only 16% of Pandits actually voted in this phase.
People thought the BJP would get a foothold here," said Vinod Pandit, the chairman of the All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee. "But the BJP made a mistake by counting Pandits as a vote bank.”
He concluded that the BJP had failed to understand Kashmir. “During its campaign, people got alarmed,” he said. “Their candidates are unknown and have not worked at the grassroots level.”
In the fourth phase last Sunday, 18 of the 87 Assembly constituencies went to the polls. Sixteen of these were in the Kashmir division, including eight in Srinagar. While the average voter turnout in the 18 Assembly segments was 49%, in Srinagar the figure reached 28% – the highest since violence exploded in the region in the late 1980s.
The BJP had invested strong hope in Srinagar district, which has a significant number of Pandit migrants living in other parts of India. And their optimism was not completely unreasonable.
A strong bastion of the ruling National Conference, the district had voted overwhelmingly for change in the form of the People’s Democratic Party in the general elections. In fact, all three Lok Sabha constituencies in the Kashmir division had plumped for PDP instead of the National Conference.
Soaring aspirations
Aspiring to ride this anti-incumbency wave with the support of Kashmiri Pandits, the BJP had fielded Dr Hina Bhat in Amira Kadal, Moti Kaul in Habba Kadal, and Ashok Kumar Bhat in Khanyar.
The saffron party’s enthusiasm was evidently not reciprocated.
Sanjay Tickoo, chairman of the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (a socio-political organisation of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley), believed the voter turnout was higher than in previous years because of the anti-incumbency and to stop the BJP from winning seats.
“Kashmiri Pandit voters are in strong numbers in Habba Kadal, Amira Kadal and Khanyar, and they could have voted for the BJP,” said Tickoo, one of the Pandits who did not migrate to Jammu in the 1990s. But he asserted that the voters did not.
Decades of apathy
Despite BJP’s high-octane campaign in the Jammu and Kashmir elections, its image in the state is still shadowed by its position on Article 370, its anti-minoritism and the 2002 Gujarat riots. This was on display at a recent rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar. Compared to the crowds he pulls in in other parts of the country, the attendance at the Srinagar rally was middling.
Kashmiri Pandits felt alienated from the party. They pointed out that Modi made no mention of the community at the Srinagar rally. “He also did not talk about Pakistan,” said Tickoo. “His speech was seen as an attempt to woo the majority community voters, which is a hard task to begin with.”
Forty-year-old Kamlesh Parimoo in Habba Kadal said he had never voted, not even in these elections. “Most Pandits do not vote here because the government has not done anything for us,” said Parimoo, an employee of the state education department. “This is not due to any threat, this is our decision. We have been here for the last 40 years and we have not seen any elected politician.”
Wrong calculations
Even if the BJP manages the colossal task of coming to power in Jammu and Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits felt it will not benefit their community.
“Everyone is educated here and people know what is good for them,” said Parimoo.
The eight assembly constituencies of Srinagar that went to the polls in the fourth phase had 30,364 potential Pandit voters, but 9,638 of them were registered. Among these registered voters, only 5,169 actually came cast their ballots. Across the state, only 16% of Pandits actually voted in this phase.
People thought the BJP would get a foothold here," said Vinod Pandit, the chairman of the All Parties Migrant Coordination Committee. "But the BJP made a mistake by counting Pandits as a vote bank.”
He concluded that the BJP had failed to understand Kashmir. “During its campaign, people got alarmed,” he said. “Their candidates are unknown and have not worked at the grassroots level.”
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