Bittersweet mandate

The successful DDC polls could help fill the political vacuum in Jammu and Kashmir, but the results have revealed the dangerous levels of communal polarisation in the Union territory

- TARIQ BHAT

AS EXPECTED, the recent District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir turned out to be a direct fight between the BJP and the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, better known as the Gupkar Alliance. The 280 DDC seats—14 each in 20 districts—were created after the Union government amended the J&K Panchayati Raj Act in October. The Gupkar Alliance of seven regional parties fought the elections on the plank of reinstating Article 370 of the Constitution. The BJP, on the other hand, said its policies helped integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country, opened up opportunities for development and ended political discrimination against refugees and women married to outsiders.

The two divergent narratives were duly reflected in the election results, with the Kashmir valley firmly siding with the Gupkar Alliance, and Jammu voting the BJP. The results have laid bare the deep communal polarisation J&K has undergone after the administrative and constitutional changes introduced by the Narendra Modi government in 2019.

The Gupkar Alliance won 110 seats, the BJP 74, independents 43 and the Congress 26. The alliance—comprising the National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party, the J&K People’s Conference, the CPI(M), the Awami National Conference, the J&K People’s Movement and the Awami Ittehad—won nine districts, all of them in the valley. The BJP won a majority in six districts in the Jammu region, despite the National Conference putting up a tough fight. It swept the districts of Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua and Samba, repeating its performance in the 2014 assembly polls and the 2019 general elections.