A FIGHT FOR KASHMIR'S FUTURE

Candidates of four Kashmiri parties, including two former J&K CMs, are in a scrum in the new Anantnag-Rajouri constituency. It gives the BJP a chance to get a toehold in the Valley

- Moazum Mohammad

Winding its way through the Pir Panjal mountains amidst breathtaking scenic beauty, the ancient road into the landlocked Kashmir Valley helped the Mughals under Akbar to gain a foothold in the Valley in the 16th century. Known thereafter as the Mughal Road, the 84km trans-Pir Panjal road that connects the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu with Shopian in the Valley can now be seen as an apt symbol of the new political landscape of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the coming Lok Sabha election. The 2022 delimitation exercise that followed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019—which bifurcated the former state into two Union territories—carved out a new parliamentary constituency spread over Jammu’s Rajouri and Poonch districts, and Anantnag, Kulgam and some pockets of Shopian districts in the Kashmir Valley. With the giant wall of the Pir Panjal cleaving it into two, the JammuKashmir sections of the new Anantnag-Rajouri LS constituency are separated by ethnicity, climate, language and culture. It is this asymmetric union that allows the BJP the unique opportunity to expand its footprint into the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.