J&K polls: For BJP, tough turf in valley, safer zone in Jammu

SRINAGAR: The BJP is struggling to woo Kashmir's Muslims. It fielded Maulana Suhaib Qasmi, a Deobandi, to dispel fears about the party's "divisive, communal agenda". But the move doesn't seem to have paid off The Kashmiri ulema have refused to entertain Qasmi and he was reportedly denied entry into several neighbourhood mosques.
In Jammu, the picture is different. Dominated by Hindus, voters here see a possibility of the region getting to dominate state politics for the first time since 1947.BJP here is perceived as a Hindu party and many voters in this part seem favourably disposed towards a national party, the state's full integration with the rest of the country and a Hindu as CM.
On a safer track in Jammu, BJP is pulling out all stops to do well here. Politics in this part of the state has traditionally been caste-based. Historically, Congress has fielded SCST candidates in reserved seats: Ramban, Chenani, Hiranagar, RS Pura, Raipura Domana, Chhamb and Samba. To counter Congress, BJP is playing its rival's game. Sitting MLAs here, many of them min isters in the Omar Abdullah government are struggling against strong anti-incumbency.

Even though BJP has backed displaced pandits, the community is yet to show its cards. Cau tious that they are, they are yet to come out in full support of the saffron party. Many BJP-led state governments granted quotas to displaced Kashmiri students in professional courses after they were forced out of the valley in 1990, a point the party stresses.
Still, in the pandit BJP seems to see a constituency that may be favourably disposed towards it. State election commission fig ures show the number of pandit voters in the valley has risen to about 1 lakh in October 2014 from 72,793 in 2008.
Their support will prove crucial in a tight fight against PDP, especially if the separatist poll boycott call holds.

BJP supporters sloganeering in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Srinagar.
The religion factor has assumed so much importance that NC's Sopore MLA Sofi Mohammad Ashraf sought help from separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani for Muslim votes to defeat the BJP candidate, who he estimates could corner 6,000-odd pandit votes. Worse, Muslims are restrained by the boycott call.
Habba Kadal MLA Shameema Firdous, fighting BJP's Moti Koul, is worried. Although Firdous objected to the registration of pandit voters after the cut-off date for voter enrolment, reports says the authorities continue to register new voters. Firdous has to deal with PDP's Zafar Mehraj, a journalist with strong ties with pandits.
No less polarized is Ladakh where Buddhists are expected to vote BJP and Muslims, either for PDP, Congress or NC. The fact remains that Ladhakis and Kashmiris have a rocky relationship.