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While the BJP has seen resignation of two old-time leaders in Jammu over ticket distribution for the coming Assembly elections, there is brewing anger and hurt among party leaders in Kashmir as well – particularly over the BJP’s decision not to contest as many as half the seats (eight of 16) in the Valley that are voting in the first phase on September 18.
Though the BJP has also announced 29 names for the second and third phases of voting, only one of them so far is for a Valley seat, which is adding to the anxiety in its ranks. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had not fielded candidates in any of the three seats in Kashmir.
Many leaders say they had been instructed by the party to start preparing for the elections and then “let down”, including in the seats where the BJP went with turncoats. Having stuck with the BJP through the time when it was a “pariah” in the Valley, many are calling it an example of the party’s “use and throw policy”.
Describing this as “the official policy” of the BJP in Kashmir, a senior leader said: “When we joined the party 15 years ago, we were given preferential treatment… Now that we have given our blood and sweat for this party, we are being sidelined.”
All the eight seats the BJP is skipping in the Valley fall in South Kashmir, a former militant hotbed. A party leader from the area said: “Many of the candidates fielded so far are leaders who joined the BJP recently. They have been given preference over those who have been with the party for almost two decades.”
The leader said those sidelined include top BJP leaders such as Fayaz Ahmad Bhat, Manzoor Kulgami and Bilal Ahmad Parray, as well as those in the second rung, including Altaf Thakur and Manzoor Ahmad Bhat. “We stood for the BJP when joining the mainstream was a taboo in Kashmir, let alone being a part of the BJP. This is the reward they are giving us for our sacrifices!” the leader said.
Last week, after the candidate list came out, the BJP’s only District Development Council member from Pulwama, Minha Lateef, resigned over being denied a party ticket from the Pampore Assembly segment. The party went with Showkat Gayoor, who joined the BJP only a few months ago.
According to one leader, “He (Gayoor) got the ticket because he is close to Darkhshan Andrabi… He has no other qualification for his candidature.” Andrabi is a member of the BJP National Executive and also the chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board. She is the only Kashmiri Muslim leader in the BJP’s 18-member core group.
Party sources said that the fact that the BJP has separate power centres in Jammu and Kashmir has added to the mess. In August last year, the BJP’s Valley-based leaders had threatened to resign en masse, accusing the party’s Jammu-based brass of “not trusting Kashmiri leaders”. The party had tried to resolve the issue by making certain changes in the leadership, but the problem persists.
“Each leader is propping up his own cadre. We have a group led by Ravinder Raina ji (state BJP president), another group by Sunil Sharma ji (former minister) and another group by Ashok Koul (BJP general secretary). Each of them has created his own lobby, and that is ruining the party,” a BJP leader, who holds a significant post in the party, said, adding that now another power centre is emerging, around Andrabi.
“To show her own clout in the party, she has ignored the top leaders and facilitated the candidature of new entrants,” the leader said.
Andrabi denied this, saying she has no role to play in the ticket distribution. “It is true that I have brought some new faces into the party, but I have no role in assigning them any posts or giving them tickets for the elections,” she told The Indian Express.
On accusations of her emerging as a power centre, Andrabi said: “If somebody joins the party and does good work, the high command acknowledges it… I am a simple worker who believes in taking everyone along. I am against conspiracies or lobbyism and believe that we all can move together.”
BJP general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul, who is also accused of sidelining leaders at the expense of those close to him, also denied the claims. “We have given tickets to old hands as well… (But) There should be some new faces as well. If someone doesn’t get a ticket, he or she makes such allegations.”
There are charges of favouritism against Jammu leaders as well. Warning that a “mass exodus may follow”, a BJP leader said: “A senior Jammu-based leader of the party doesn’t want to promote Kashmiri Muslim leaders. He is also responsible for sidelining top Jammu leaders because he was feeling threatened.”
Though the BJP had a few faces in the Valley even in the 1990s, its visibility in Kashmir increased after it came to power for the first time in J&K in 2014, in a coalition government with the People’s Democratic Party. Its party unit in J&K has always been dominated by leaders from Jammu.
BJP leaders are also angry over the party ticket from Habbakdal in Srinagar going to a Kashmiri Pandit migrant. “There is no logic in it. The only reason is that they still don’t trust us,” said a BJP leader from Srinagar, asking how the party expected to win with just Pandit votes, and that the community anyway votes for the BJP.
