Farooq Abdullah to the fore as J&K prepares for assembly polls

Opposition parties are worried about the BJP using the 'system' to its advantage

16-Farooq-Abdullah-with-Ghulam-Nabi-Azad Getting ready: Farooq Abdullah with Ghulam Nabi Azad | Umer Asif

ON DECEMBER 5, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah was reelected unopposed as president of the National Conference for the fourth time. The election was held at the lakeside mausoleum of his father, the party’s founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, at Hazratbal in Srinagar, on his 117th birthday. Party spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said Abdullah, 85, was the unanimous choice of the delegates.

The party had announced a fortnight earlier that Abdullah would not stand for election. He has been its president since 1981, except during 2002-09 when his son, Omar, held the post. Abdullah, however, opted for yet another term, possibly to stop the BJP, which is going all out to win the upcoming assembly elections.

Abdullah’s reelection is expected to rejuvenate National Conference supporters, who see the BJP as their biggest challenge. He is also the president of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, which seeks the restoration of Article 370 of the Constitution and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Gupkar Alliance members like the National Conference, the Peoples Democratic Party, the CPI(M) and the Jammu and Kashmir Awami National Conference are likely to join hands with the Congress and the Democratic Azad Party of former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to keep the BJP at bay, although they will not be fighting the elections together. Azad and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP have hailed Abdullah’s reelection.

Abdullah urged his supporters to remain steadfast in their fight against the BJP. He asked them to emulate the Bengalis who supported Mamata Banerjee. He said the BJP had tried to buy legislators in Telangana and other places. “They will try such things here as well,” he said. “We have to be steadfast.”

BJP leaders arrive to meet members of delimitation commission in Jammu | PTI BJP leaders arrive to meet members of delimitation commission in Jammu | PTI

Abdullah said the Union government had given key posts of secretaries and police superintendents to people from outside Jammu and Kashmir. “Are we so dumb that we cannot handle our affairs? We are being enslaved. This, too, shall pass. Our oppressors will rot in hell,” he said. He warned the Modi government and the Army against interfering in the assembly polls. “Otherwise, there will be a storm that you will not be able to control,” he said.

After the bifurcation of the Jammu and Kashmir state into two Union territories, the Modi government has linked the restoration of statehood to the completion of delimitation and the holding of elections. The delimitation commission submitted its final report in May. The special summary revision of the electoral rolls was completed in November.

The delimitation commission was constituted by the Union government after reading down Article 370 and amending the J&K Representation of the People Act (1957). Delimitation, however, became controversial after the commission increased six assembly seats in Jammu, but just one in Kashmir. Jammu, where the BJP enjoys the upper hand, now has 48 per cent of the Union territory’s seats, despite having only 44 per cent of its population. Kashmir, with 56 per cent of the population, has got only 52 per cent of the seats.

Questions are also being raised about delinking the delimitation exercise in J&K from the rest of the country where it will take place only in 2026. Regional parties have accused the delimitation commission of working at the behest of the BJP.

The revision of the voters’ list, too, has become controversial after J&K’s chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar said in August that non-locals living ordinarily in the Union territory and armed forces personnel posted there would be allowed to register as voters. It caused a furore, with regional parties calling it a BJP ploy to bring in outsiders to influence the outcome of the elections. The government then clarified that ordinary residents would not be able to register as voters unless they got their names deleted from other places where they were already listed as voters.

Following these changes, J&K’s electoral roll has had an increase of 7.72 lakh voters, the highest-ever increase. It is a significant increase of 10.19 per cent. Kumar was elevated as deputy election commissioner at the Election Commission of India in September.

Delimitation and voter rolls revision having been completed, the Election Commission could hold the assembly elections after winter. Political parties are already organising meetings and reaching out to supporters. Regional parties are, however, worried that the BJP might use the ‘system’ to gain an unfair advantage.

Tarun Chugh, the BJP’s J&K in-charge, met with his party’s newly elected district presidents and other key functionaries at the party headquarters in Trikuta Nagar, Jammu, on December 9. He was confident that assembly elections would be held soon. “Delimitation and enrollment of voters have taken place. The voters’ list will be given to political parties for filing their objections,” he said.

Though the Union government has taken several steps to attract investments in Jammu and Kashmir by unveiling a new industrial policy that offers land and subsidies to industrialists, the progress has been slow. Political observers believe that addressing the feeling of disempowerment caused by the absence of an elected government is the need of the hour.

Abdullah’s reelection as the National Conference president has come at a time when the political and administrative landscape in Jammu and Kashmir has changed completely. The assembly elections could be his biggest political fight. He not only has to steer his party to a respectable performance, but also has to carry along other regional parties in their battle against the BJP.