Changing Perception of Electoral Politics in Jammu and Kashmir: A Study of BJP Dominance in Assembly Elections of 2014

Abstract

The present study is an exploration into the Jammu and Kashmir's party politics, with a focus on the Bharatiya Janata Party. The study is analytical in nature and has adopted the qualitative approach to delve deep into the party politics in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the emergence of BJP in the helm of governance. To fulfil the objectives of the study and draw the precise inferences with regard to subject matter, secondary data sources have been used. In this background, the findings of the study have revealed that in the backdrop of the one-party system that dominated in political stage of the politics in the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, wherein the only political choice or option with the masses was the National Conference predominantly a Muslim party. The emergence of the BJP had highly favourable effects on the democratic politics of this region. Prior to its advent in the state, voters lacked a different ideological option which could support the minority sentiment in state and echoed around being more democratic option to overthrow the so called dynastic rule particularly in Kashmir's mainstream politics having it influence even in the Hindu dominant region of Jammu. With BJP in place, there was tremendous competition in the democratic arena. In this context BJP arrived setting up the environment for the competitive politics; therefore a concrete effort is made to explore and analyze the BJP's performance in the 2014 election & its ideological dominance in the Muslim majority state and emergence as a political contender.