Who are BJP’s friends in J&K?2019 polls

Jammu: BJP national general secretary and in-charge J&K, Ram Madhav, was in Jammu for two days. He met all the top party functionaries, including Mandal Pradhans, and discussed with them the poll strategy. He also addressed media on Monday.

“The BJP is ready for the Assembly polls in the state. It is up to the Election Commission to decide whether the two polls are held together or separately,” Madhav told reporters in Jammu while responding to the question regarding simultaneous elections in the state. Madhav on Sunday had maintained that the “BJP and ‘some friends’ will form a stable government after Assembly elections are held in the state”.
Madhav also referred to the post-poll alliance between the BJP and the PDP in 2015. Referring to the “special circumstances in the state”, Madhav-who was hailed as the chief architect of BJP-PDP alliance-however, said that the BJP does not have any hesitation in joining hands with other parties to form a government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Going into the background of his party’s alliance with the PDP after the 2014 Assembly elections, he said: “We formed an alliance with the PDP based on a common minimum programme” (read PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance that handed over everything to the PDP on a platter and also said that the BJP will not touch Article 370 and tthat the state government would facilitate talks between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir Issue”.
“Our party would most likely contest alone in the Assembly elections,” he claimed, adding that “We will field candidates for all the seats in the state. At the same time, there is little possibility of a pre-poll alliance with any party.” He added: “I am confident that the BJP will emerge as the largest single party after the election”.
Who are the BJP’s friends in J&K? The National Conference, which once shared power with the BJP during the Vajpayee time? Certainly not. Much water has flown down the Tawi and Jhelum rivers since then. The NC will never ever shake hands with the BJP as it knows that any truck with the BJP will have a cascading effect in the Valley, its core constituency, notwithstanding the fact that there is no fundamental difference between the BJP and the Congress.
Then who? The PDP of Mehbooba Mufti? Of course not. The PDP is already at the receiving hand in Kashmir Valley. It is paying a very heavy price. Mehbooba Mufti has already bemoaned her decision to stitch alliance with the BJP, saying “it was like drinking a cup of poison”. Almost 9 former PDP lawmakers, including many ministers, have already jumped out of the PDP sinking ship. Many others are planning to leave Mehbooba Mufti. They are looking towards the NC, and even the marginal People’s Conference of Sajad Lone. The fact of the matter is that the alliance between the PDP and the BJP has hurt the PDP in the Kashmir Valley and the BJP in Jammu and Ladkh.
Of course, Sajad Lone could be the BJP’s friend. But the problem is that the Lone has a very limited support-base in the Valley. It’s confined to Kupwara-Handwara areas. It’s a different issue that a number of PDP leaders have accepted him as his leader because of some local factors. Lone doesn’t have the potential of winning more than 2 to 3 seats in Kashmir.
At the same time, Lone has opened all his cards and left none in any doubt that he would be no different from Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti when it would come to Kashmir and the people of Jammu and Ladakh know it.
This is the whole political scenario in the state. Significantly, the BJP is the only party in the state which has no ideology. The statement of Ram Madhav that the “BJP and ‘some friends’ will form a stable government after Assembly elections are held in the state” simply proves that it can compromise its position once again for the sake of power. And the people of Jammu are watching with vigilance all the activities of the BJP, which, according to the BJP-watchers, “has fallen from grace because of its insatiable lust for power and pelf”.