In a remarkable achievement, the BJP, which won Jammu, Udhampur and Ladakh seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, took lead in 28 Assembly segments out of 41 in Jammu and Ladakh divisions, the data said.
The party had won 25 Assembly seats in 2014 polls. The saffron party managed to get 16,18359 votes out of total 27,93580 polled on all three seats Jammu (858066), Udhampur (724311) and Ladakh (42914). The party increased its vote share to whopping 58%.
Though the BJP’s ambitious ‘Mission 44’ failed in the last Assembly polls, this time it is bidding for what at one time was unthinkable in Jammu and Kashmir - a saffron party led government in the only Muslim majority state in the Country.
J&K Assembly has 87 seats and any party or alliance needs 44 members to form the government. The party expects to achieve ‘Mission 44’ this time by sweeping all 37 seats in Jammu and four seats in Ladakh, besides a few seats in the Muslim majority Kashmir Valley through its proxy candidates.
In 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP’s ‘Mission 44’ in J&K may have failed, but the party has established itself as a powerhouse in the state politics, relegating the Congress to wilderness. “Though BJP was not able to win even a single seat from Muslim majority Kashmir in 2014, for the first time after 1947, the BJP is fully focused on the Valley. The party has shortlisted eight to 10 Assembly constituencies in Kashmir, where it has launched a massive enrollment campaign,” sources said.
In 2014 Assembly polls, the saffron party roped in Muslims clerics from other states to canvass for it. Jammu and Kashmir has not given a clear mandate to any political party since the 1996 assembly elections, which was swept by the regional National Conference with 57 seats. Since then in three successive elections in 2002, 2008 and 2014, no party has crossed 28 seat mark and coalition governments have been working in the state since then.