The BJP’s calculations to somehow get democratic legitimacy for the controversial revocation of Article 370 by holding assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir rested on three broad stratagems. The first involved a series of steps by the Modi government in the past few years including the J&K Re-organisation Act of 2019, the Delimitation Commission Report of 2022, and the J&K Re-organisation (Amendment Act) of 2023, along with giving voting rights to five nominated seats by the Lt Governor in the assembly, all designed to suit the ruling party.
Finally, as far as Kashmir was concerned, the BJP, knowing that its own electoral prospects were dim in the Valley, decided on a novel strategy of encouraging multi-polar contests by small regional players, aimed at marginalising the two major local parties, ie, the National Conference and the PDP, as well as the Congress.
Some of these small parties were political proxies of the BJP like the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference led by Sajad…