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Journalism of Courage
Legislative elections for Jammu and Kashmir were held between September 18 and October 1 for the first time in over a decade. The region went to polls five years after the abrogation of Article 370, which guaranteed the former state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) special status. The state also became a Union Territory in the same year.
As of Tuesday evening (October 8), trends indicated that the electoral combine of the Indian National Congress (INC) and National Conference (NC) were in the lead, with NC leader Omar Abdullah poised to become the next Chief Minister.
We look back at three significant elections in the former state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The 1977 state elections marked an important milestone. Firstly, it saw a return to ‘free and fair elections’ following the Emergency period (1975-77), which saw a severe clamping down on civil liberties and freedoms. Prime Minister Morarji Desai enacted strict measures to discourage electoral rigging and malpractice to ensure the smooth conduct of elections. The result: a formidable voter turnout of 67 per cent.
Before that, the Indira-Abdullah Accord of 1975 had led to National Conference leader Sheikh Abdullah assuming power as Chief Minister, with the support of the Congress. The Indian Express then described Abdullah assuming the Chief Ministerial post as an “epochal event in the history of free India”. (India After Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha, 2008).
However, the Congress withdrew their support two years later, prompting fresh polls in June 1977. With the Emergency leading to the Congress losing its footing in many parts of India, a favourable opportunity was presented for the return of Abdullah and a revitalised NC. He remained in power until his death in 1982, following which his son Farooq Abdullah took over as the CM.
Marred by allegations of electoral rigging, the 1987 elections are widely believed to have been the impetus for the prolonged insurgency that the region witnessed.
A year after the Farooq Abdullah-led NC won the assembly elections in 1983, Ghulam Mohammad Shah and a faction of supporters defected from the National Conference, triggering a political crisis. Shah served as CM until 1986, when Governor Jagmohan dismissed the government.
Around this time, Rajiv Gandhi was threatened by the formation of Muslim United Front (MUF), a coalition of Muslim Kashmiri parties that was gaining popularity in the state. Farooq Abdullah then returned as the chief minister thanks to Gandhi's support, with the understanding that the Congress and NC would together contest elections next year.
The 1987 elections reportedly witnessed a voter turnout of 80 per cent, but voters were also reportedly coerced into voting for the NC. As trust in the Centre fell among some sections, the state saw a rise of militancy. Then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's daughter Rabaiya was also kidnapped by militants in 1989.
In the following years, the state would witness a mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus and rampant violence amidst a renewed call for political autonomy.
In 1999, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his supporters left the Congress to form the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The party initially allied with the Congress and dethroned the NC.
The 2002 polls were viewed as a complete reversal of the contentious 1987 elections, which had amplified separatism in the region. Ramachandra Guha wrote that the verdict established a linkage between the people and the government: “The new chief minister, Mufti Mohammed Saeed, expressed these sentiments more crisply when he remarked that ‘this is the first time since 1953 that India has acquired legitimacy in the eyes of the [Kashmiri] people’”.
Sayeed’s tenure as CM coincided with the normalisation of the peace process between India and Pakistan, including the cross-border bus and trade service along the Line of Control. The state also witnessed civic polls for the first time in almost three decades in January 2005, despite spurts of violence.
Sayeed’s tenure as CM ended in 2005 as he had agreed to let the Congress’s Ghulam Nabi Azad serve the rest of the term. While he did not pass on the mantle happily, he remained in the government until the end of the term.
