BJP shakes up poll race in disputed Kashmir

(MENAFN- Arab News) SRINAGAR: Accompanied by half a dozen guards Hina Bhat knocks on doors in Srinagar the heart of a revolt against Indian rule to persuade Kashmiris to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party in this month's state election.

After winning the biggest national mandate in 30 years Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP has launched its most audacious election project yet to win power in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir and integrate the disputed region fully into India.

It is Modi's toughest test yet his party has no base in the Kashmir Valley where it is seen as anti-Muslim. Even more of a red rag is the BJP's long-held demand to abrogate the Himalayan region's special status in the constitution. Its aggressive posture toward Pakistan which also claims Kashmir is just as menacing to the people sandwiched between the two countries.

And yet within weeks Modi has shaken up an election race dominated by two regional groups and the Congress party. A former separatist leader Sajjad Lone met Modi this week and said the BJP leader could change Kashmir's fortunes.

A poll on Tuesday said the BJP would win the most seats ever in Jammu and Kashmir but fall short of its goal of 44 in the 87-seat state assembly.

'There is only one mantra and that is development. The hunger for development in Kashmir is the same as the rest of country if not more' said BJP strategist Ram Madhav.

'We want a state government that can move shoulder-to-shoulder with Modi.'

Bhat a dentist-turned-politician offers voters exhausted by years of strife the vision that Modi promises to the rest of India of 'smart' cities and expressways.