WHY DO POLITICAL PARTIES WANT EC TO DELAY 7 MAY POLLS IN J&K’S ANANTNAG?

Ahead of the polls in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag, some political parties want the voting to be delayed.

Four outfits have all asked the Election Commission to postpone the 7 May vote for the Lok Sabha seat in Anantnag-Rajouri.

According to Indian Express, the BJP, the J&K Apni Party, the People’s Conference and the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) have approached the Election Commission of India to postpone the vote.

All four parties have claimed that snowfall and landslides have obstructed passage on Mughal Road.

This is the only thoroughfare that connects Anantnag and Rajouri.

The parties claimed that the development has hampered their campaign across the constituency.

But is that really the issue? Or is there something else at play?

Let’s take a closer look:

The constituency

First, let's briefly examine the Lok Sabha constituency in Anantnag-Rajouri.

According to The Hindu, the seat was established in 2022.

This, after the J&K Delimitation Commission brought together Rajouri and Poonch in the Pir Panjal valley and Anantnag, Shopian and Kulgam.

This had the impact of changing the voter demographics.

Anantnag previously had 14 lakh voters in 2019.

Of these, half spoke Kashmiri and the other half were tribals including Paharis and Gujjars.

After delimitation, 7.35 lakh voters from Pir Panjal were included in the seat.

This swung things in favour of the tribals instead of the Kashmiri voters.

The Anantnag-Rajouri seat now comprises seven Assembly segments in Rajouri and Poonch with 7.35 lakh voters as well as 11 Assembly segments in Shopian, Kulgam, Pulwama, and Anantnag with another 10.94 lakh voters.

The politics of it all

Now, let's examine the politics.

According to Indian Express, the local parties in Jammu and Kashmir expressed outrage at the reshaping of the seat demographically.

They claimed the exercise was undertaken to favour the BJP.

For example, Democratic Progressive Azad Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad in April said the delimitation process had been undertaken mindlessly.

Azad said the Delimitation Commission should have recommended increasing the number of Lok Sabha seats in Jammu region to three without tinkering with the seats in the Kashmir valley.

"If they had to increase the seat for Jammu, they should have made three seats there. No Kashmiri would have made noise against it. What difference would one seat make in 550 seats? By making it 2.5 seats for each region, they have widened the differences within the (Anantnag-Rajouri) constituency," he said.

"The delimitation of constituencies was done without application of mind. If they had seen physically where Rajouri-Poonch is and where this (Anantnag) is and if they had travelled by road, they would have known that these two regions are divided by mountains for thousands of years," Azad told reporters while campaigning for his party candidate Mohammad Saleem Parray in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.

Azad said campaigning in the election is going to be difficult. The candidates will find travelling between two regions cumbersome.

"The road remains closed due to snow for six months in winter. What kind of constituency is this? With due respect to the Election Commission and the Delimitation Commission, the process has not be done with application of mind. This exercise cannot be done through Google. These things are done on the basis of physical verification. If it were to be done on Google, then some of the neighbouring countries will also be touching our mountains which will be a big problem politically," he said.

The BJP has been attempting to gain the favour of the STs since the constituency was established.

It did so by enacting the Forest Rights Act, which offers protections to Gujjars and Bakerwals.

The tribals had been demanding the implementation of this Act for a long time.

The Centre in 2024 also added the Pahari ethnic group to the Scheduled Tribe list.

The Union government also carved out disparate quotas in jobs and education for the Paharis to make sure there was no protest from the Gujjars and Bakerwals.

So, what about the polls?

A total of 25 candidates have submitted nomination papers from Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency.

Interestingly, the BJP is not among the parties who fielded a candidate

Sources told Indian Express this was done as Muslims comprise the majority of voters in the constituency.

The party thus thought that putting forth its own candidate, despite its meticulous preparations, would be a risky endeavour.

The key candidates from the constituency are former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, senior National Conference (NC) leader Mian Altaf, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas of the Apni Party and Mohammad Saleem Parray of the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP).

As per The Hindu, Altaf is a well-known Gujjar leader from Anantnag's Kangan.

Mufti, of course, is a former chief minister.

The BJP has offered support to the Apni Party's Manhas -- who is a Pahari

There are also candidates from smaller political parties and several Independents, including the first non-Kashmiri person to contest an election in Jammu and Kashmir.

Baldev Kumar, a resident of Punjab's Mohali who is currently residing in Jammu Tawi, has submitted his nomination from the constituency, making him the first non-Kashmiri to contest polls in the Union Territory.

So, what could the play?

According to Indian Express, postponing the polls could give the BJP an opportunity to either field its own candidate or lend further assistance to Manhas of the Apni Party.

How have the other parties reacted to this request?

Badly.

NDTV quoted both the  National Conference and the PDP as slamming the BJP's request.

National Conference chief Omar Abdullah said, "The letter from the Election Commission to the J&K administration is intriguing."

Abdullah added that those seeking that the polls be delayed aren't fielding candidates.

"The People's Conference and the BJP are not contesting in Anantnag constituency. What do they have do with this election? They are proving that they are helping someone through the backdoor. If our views are ignored, it would mean that it is a well-planned conspiracy to fiddle with elections," Abdullah said.

Mufti, the PDP chief and Anantnag candidate, added, "The Mughal road is open. I have myself travelled by the Mughal road. What is this excuse to defer elections? Through delimitation, they have already rigged elections... Didn't they know at the time of delimitation that unless a tunnel is built between the Valley and Pir Panjal commuting remains difficult for 6 months?"

The Hindu quoted Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader MY Tarigami as saying that such a move would “harm the electoral process in J&K as well as the credibility of Election Commission of India”.

“Some parties have requested the ECI to postpone polls in Anantnag-Rajouri seat. I feel this is a baseless demand. Such steps will harm the electoral process in J&K and the credibility of the ECI,” Tarigami added.

But the BJP remains insistent that the polls be delayed.

NDTV quoted Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina as saying, "There is bad weather, heavy snowfall, connectivity through Mughal road from Rajouri-Poonch to the Valley is closed... what's the fault of BJP? There has been heavy snowfall on the Pir Panjal mountains."

With inputs from agencies

2024-04-30T09:41:48Z dg43tfdfdgfd