Why BJP Withdrew Jammu and Kashmir Candidate List Minutes After Publishing It and Republished Shorter Lists

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday released a list of 44 names for the Jammu and Kashmir elections – 15 candidates for the first phase, 10 for the second and 19 for the third – only to later remove it from WhatsApp groups and even the party website and release a new list for the first phase, followed by a second list with just one name.

What motivated the BJP’s action?

Two reasons are being put forward for the sudden change by the party, which is hoping to repeat its performance of 2014, the last time Jammu and Kashmir held parliamentary elections.

ALSO READ | BJP releases first list for Jammu and Kashmir elections, withdraws it soon after, then announces two revised lists with just 16 names

TRANSITORS DOMINATION

When the BJP released its first list of 44 candidates, which has now been withdrawn, it was dominated by defectors who would have sent a wrong message to the party cadre. After facing a backlash from the cadre in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh that cost the BJP dearly, the party wanted to announce slowly and probably reconsider some names for the remaining two phases, where the message would not be a blow to the cadre.

Syed Mushtaq Ahmad Bukhari, a former National Conference (NC) minister who recently joined the BJP, was given a ticket from Surankote, while Devinder Rana, a former close aide of Omar Abdullah, was also given a ticket from Nagrota. Former PDP leader Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi was given a ticket from Pampore. Defectors Zulfikar Ali, Murtaza Khan and SS Salthia were also given a ticket.

But the revised list of 15 BJP candidates, which was also for the first phase, did not include the names of many renegades.

The BJP was worried that its cadres would stop campaigning. But the withdrawal of the list gave rise to something worse: an infighting. Moments after the renegade-dominated list was released, the BJP party headquarters in Jammu was the scene of a protest, with supporters chanting “zindabad” slogans in the name of the leaders who had been ignored.

LACK OF “BIG” NAMES

Another reason for the BJP to withdraw the list was the absence of its own faces and old horses, which could only complicate matters for the party. One of the biggest faces of the BJP from Jammu – its former deputy chief minister Nirmal Singh – was denied a ticket. Former minister Satpal Sharma, who won with the biggest margin of 50,629 votes in the 2014 assembly elections, was also not retained in the list of 44. While the BJP had fielded two Kashmiri Pandits – Veer Saraf and Ashok Bhat – in the original list to attract the core voters, the absence of big names drew attention.

The BJP has made light of the situation. “It is an internal decision (to withdraw and reissue the list of candidates) of the party. We are a cadre-based party, unlike a family unit of the Congress, which is reeling from its defeat in the Jammu and Kashmir elections. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are waiting to reject their separatist politics,” BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari told News18.

But a Delhi-based BJP leader acknowledged on condition of anonymity that the list had been released “hastily, without considering its implications”.