Jammu: Contrary to the Bhartiya Janata Party’s claim that the lotus has bloomed in Jammu and Kashmir, the party’s figures in the recently concluded District Development Council election offers a different picture.
In total, across the Union Territory, BJP got 75 seats out of 278. Counting on two seats was kept in abeyance by the State Election Commissioner (SEC) over a question of the citizenship of contestants.
The saffron party got 72 out of 140 seats in 10 districts of Jammu division – which it has considered its stronghold – and was unable to win the post of chairperson in five districts. However, it is in this division where BJP’s claim falls particularly flat.
In the Chenab Valley region which comprises three districts – Ramban, Doda and Kashtwar – and is a part of the Udampur-Kathua parliamentary seat represented by Minister of State for the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jatinder Singh since 2014, BJP got 14 out of 42 seats.
Two out of the four BJP MLAs in the erstwhile J&K legislative assembly, Shakti Raj Parihar from Doda and Sunil Sharma from Kishtwar, were in the Council of Ministers in the BJP-PDP government.
This time, Parihar lost from the two seats of Gunda and Marmat in Doda district. However, BJP secured a two-third majority in the district, by winning eights seats. But in the other two districts of Chenab Valley, Ramban and Kishtwar, the party hardly won three seats from each.
Also read: DDC Poll Results Are an Emphatic Rejection of the Scrapping of J&K’s Special Status
Sunil Sharma, the former minister, did not contest the polls. In the three other districts of Udampur-Kathua parliamentary constituency, the saffron party got 11 seats in Udhamapur, 13 in Kathua and failed to reach the majority mark in eight seats in Reasi. In the latter, though, BJP can easily secure the post of the DDC chairperson with the help of one independent candidate.
In the border district of Rajouri, home to the BJP’s state president Ravinder Raina, the party got only three seats and in Poonch district, the BJP could not open its account.
Two ex-ministers from Rajouri district – among them Ab Gani Kohli who won the election from Kalakote constituency on the BJP’s ticket – could not bring a single seat to the party, which instead went to National Conference.
Randhir Singh, the younger brother of the late Thakur Rashpal Singh who was a two-time MLA from Kalakote, had joined BJP before Rashpal’s death on September 7, this year. In the election, Randhir Singh’s wife Sushma Thakur was the BJP candidate. Despite rigorous campaigns by Central leaders including Anurag Thakur and Smirti Irani, she lost to her sister-in-law Anita Thakur with a margin of 2,218.
Another heavyweight leader and former minister Zulfkar Ali had, after the Article 370 move last year, joined the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party formed by one-time PDP loyalist Altaf Bukhari. The party is considered to be the BJP’s B-team.
Zulfkar’s wife Zubeda Begum who resigned from the post of a school teacher to contest the election remained at number 3 after the final results, losing to her nephew’s wife, Shazia Kousar who had also left her government job to contest the polls.
In Jammu district, two-time MLA and former minister in BJP-PDP state government, Shyam Choudhary lost to an independent candidate Taranjit Singh by a thin margin of 11 votes from Suchetgarh constituency.
In the home town of three-time BJP MLA and former minister Sukhnadan Choudhary, an independent candidate Balbir Lal registered victory by defeating BJP candidate Vandana Kumari by a margin of 725 votes.
In Jammu-Poonch MP Jugal Kishore Sharma’s town, the DDC seat at Dansal was won by the National Conference’s Shamim Begum. The BJP candidate Nasreen was defeated by 754 votes.
Below is a district-wise breakdown of BJP’s numbers in Jammu.
| Districts in Jammu | BJP | Other |
| Doda | 08 | 06 |
| Kishtwar | 03 | 11 |
| Ramban | 03 | 11 |
| Reasi | 07 | 07 |
| Udhampur | 11 | 03 |
| Kathua | 13 | 01 |
| Jammu | 11 | 03 |
| Samba | 13 | 01 |
| Rajouri | 03 | 11 |
| Poonch | 00 | 14 |
Avinash Azad is principal correspondent of the Early Times and won the Media Award 2020 of the National Foundation for India.