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AAP sounds its bugle in BJP turf Jammu, plays its hit tunes of ‘soft Hindutva’ & ‘Delhi model’

AAP has ramped up outreach in Jammu and is getting encouraging response in Hindu-dominated districts, with more than 2,000 volunteers joining in past 3 months, leaders say.

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Jammu/Samba/Doda: The dak bungalow at Thathri village, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, buzzed with activity on the morning of 8 June. This corner of Doda district was the venue for the first of a series of outreach meetings organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the remote Chenab Valley region of Jammu.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, a hundred-odd people from scattered villages in Doda and Kishtwar districts congregated at the building. Some were there out of curiosity, while others wanted an ear for their problems: Lack of motorable roads, poor healthcare services, long power cuts, not enough schools nearby.

AAP party worker and district development councillor Mehraj Malik had a ready solution for these problems when he addressed the gathering at the dak bungalow at noon: A political alternative.

He mentioned the AAP’s “Delhi model” at least thrice in his brief address. “If it worked in Punjab, it can work in Jammu too,” he said, and urged the people to spread the word in their villages.

Mehraj Malik, district development councillor of AAP from Doda district, addresses the meeting at the Thathri dak bungalow | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

The AAP has been in charge of the Delhi government since 2015, but it was only in March this year that it won an election outside the capital — in Punjab, where it claimed 92 out of 117 seats.

The party is now more actively invested than ever in expanding its national footprint. It is set to contest the Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat later this year, and has appointed in-charges in several other states too.

Jammu is part of its expansion plan, and more so after the Election Commission finished its delimitation exercise — redrawing the electoral boundaries — for the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir last month. Political activity was suspended in J&K after the scrapping of Article 370 in August 2019 — that led to the removal of its ‘special’ status on many administrative fronts — but now elections seem like a possibility in the near future.

The Thathri meeting came around two months after the party officially marked its presence in Jammu with a rally in Doda district, where the turnout was a surprise even to AAP leaders.

“The rally was not attended by any top leader. It was organised entirely by local volunteers. Even chief (Arvind Kejriwal) was taken aback when he saw videos of it on social media. It helped us realise the potential for expansion in Jammu,” a senior member of the AAP’s political affairs committee told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

As it has done elsewhere, the AAP is focusing on promoting its development “model”, which lays emphasis on schools, hospitals, power and water supply, roads, and “corruption-free” politics. However, it is also capitalising on its own brand of ‘soft Hindutva’ and targeting those who are disenchanted with the BJP in the years following the scrapping of Article 370.

“There is a large chunk of people disenchanted with the BJP’s politics and they see no hope in the existing regional parties. The AAP in Jammu is working hard to add them in its support base,” Kuldeep Kumar Rao, an AAP leader in Jammu, told ThePrint.

So far, the response has been encouraging, he said.

Nevertheless, the AAP in Jammu faces issues such as having few known faces and a perception that it is yet to find a way to appeal to Muslims here.


Also Read: ‘Locked up like animals’ – Pandits want to flee Kashmir, hope it’s their last exodus


Changing political mood

Right outside the dak bungalow in Thathri, villagers in a long queue filled water in jars from a public tube-well, which they said is the only source of water for more than 200 families in their locality.

Issues such as this are common in the remote region, and people said they wanted a change — but they weren’t not sure if the AAP would be the harbinger.

“We have been seeing AAP’s presence in the area for some months now. People in this region want a change. But we are assessing if AAP is the party which is promising enough to enable that change,” Saleem Din, a resident of Thathri who belongs to the Gujjar community, said.

AAP leader Kuldeep Kumar Rao, however, is confident that the party’s track record will work in its favour.

“The AAP has credibility when it comes to working for better schools, hospitals, water, power, roads, etc. The lack of such facilities in the hilly areas of Jammu give us hope for expansion,” he said.

This is much the line that the party has taken in hill states such as Uttarakhand (where it lost in the 2022 polls) and in Himachal Pradesh, where it plans to contest later this year.

But, in the Hindu-dominated plains districts — such as Udhampur, Samba, Kathua, and Jammu — it is also banking on winning over those who are disillusioned with the BJP. In these regions, there were celebrations when Article 370 was scrapped three years ago, but the political mood is no longer so exuberant.

The AAP office in Jammu. The party has rented out the ground floor in a posh locality of the city | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

“There was hope that things would change with the BJP government at the Centre taking over control of the region, but our expectations were not met. There is massive unemployment, incomes have gone down, and businesses are doing poorly,” Arun Sharma, a resident of the Vijaypur assembly segment in Samba district, said.

Sharing similar concerns, Brijesh Sanyal, a resident of Jammu city, said: “On the one hand, people are frustrated because of sharp price rises and a fall in income. On the other hand, they fail to see any end to the same old problems of poor healthcare facilities, the bad shape of schools, broken roads, long and uncertain power cuts, etc.”

The AAP has been around in Jammu since it set up its local unit in 2015, but it has never won any seats here.

According to party functionaries, this unit is only now really coming to life, with more than 2,000 volunteers joining in the past three months alone.

However, the party is yet to officially appoint in-charges in Jammu, and has not designated office bearers at block, assembly segment, and district levels so far.

Hindu appeal

Several regional leaders of the AAP in Jammu claimed that the party is getting its best response in Hindu-dominated districts, where the BJP enjoys its greatest support in the Union territory.

“A large number of people who once voted for the BJP but are now fed up of the party see an alternative in the AAP,” said Yashpal Kundal, a former minister in the Jammu and Kashmir government and MLA of the J&K National Panthers Party, who recently joined the AAP.

According to Kundal, who is based in Samba district, the AAP’s discourse has plenty in it to appeal to Hindus.

“The AAP has been very vocal about supporting the construction of the temple at Ayodhya, endorsing the ideas of deshbhakti (patriotism) and nationalism, and taking up the concerns of Kashmiri Hindus, which is a sensitive subject in Jammu,” he said.

AAP president and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, too, has been raising his pitch on Kashmiri Pandits for a while.

In a speech at the Delhi Assembly on 25 March, Kejriwal accused the BJP of not doing enough for the community. He also said that the makers of the controversial film The Kashmir Files should donate revenue earned from the movie towards the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits.

Over the past week, too, Kejriwal spoke more than once about the travails of the Kashmiri Pandits and claimed that the BJP couldn’t “handle” the situation. On 5 June, the AAP held a candlelight vigil for Hindus allegedly targeted by terrorists in the Valley.

Less traction among Muslims

Given its focus on the Hindus of J&K, the AAP is yet to find a firm foothold in districts that have a relatively high Muslim population, such as Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch, and Rajouri.

According to Deep Singh, a founder-member of the J&K AAP, party leaders in these pockets are often confronted by locals with questions about their stand on Article 370 and issues concerning Muslims.

In 2019, Kejriwal supported the Centre’s decision to scrap Article 370. Also, over the last two years, there has been a clear shift in the AAP’s political vocabulary in matters that concern the Muslim community — the strategy, according to party leaders, being an attempt to woo voters aligned with the BJP but disenchanted by its governance.

“That is why the party’s growth pace is relatively slow in districts such as Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Rajouri at this point. But we are working on it. We need to have a strong presence in both Hindu and Muslim-dominated districts,” Deep Singh said.

‘Lack of direction’, no strong faces

The AAP’s problems do not end here. There is also a perception that at this stage the party’s unit in Jammu lacks direction.

Javed Ishtaq, a businessman based in Doda town, said: “We see them (AAP) doing rallies. They have been active over the past three months or so. Most of them are young men who clearly want to do something in life. So, there is a lot of noise. But even in those rallies, most of the political workers of AAP do not seem to be sure of what message they really want to convey. There is a definite lack of direction in them.”

Then there are those who point out how the AAP still does not have a local leadership face of its own in Jammu.

“In Jammu politics, people show trust in parties that have strong leaders. The AAP does not have any yet,” Tulsi Bhat, a Jammu-based former government employee, said.

At this point, most prominent faces with the AAP in Jammu are former leaders of the Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP). These include Yashpal Kundal, former J&K education minister Harsh Dev Singh, and former MLA Balkant Singh Malkotia. However, the JKNNP witnessed major infighting in the past few years and further suffered a blow when its chief Bhim Singh died on 31 May.

Political opponents are watchful, but sceptical

Political opponents have taken note of the AAP’s activities in Jammu, especially after the Punjab victory on 10 March.

The BJP, which considers Jammu division a stronghold, is particularly watchful.

The BJP won 25 out of 37 seats in the Jammu division in the last assembly polls held in 2014 — up from 11 seats in the 2008 assembly polls. After the delimitation exercise, the number of seats in the Jammu subdivision has increased to 43.

A Jammu-based senior leader of the BJP, who did not wish to be identified, said: “We don’t fear that the AAP will take Jammu away from us. The concern is that they can divide the Hindu votes in the Hindu-dominated assembly seats that are our stronghold. Now our party has a larger objective of appointing a Hindu chief minister in Jammu and Kashmir once the assembly elections are held. For that, the Jammu division is extremely crucial for the party.”

Another district-level BJP leader, who also  did not wish to be identified, highlighted how the party has been organising multiple outreach programmes lately in Jammu, considering the AAP’s increasing popularity in the region.

In the past three weeks, the district-level leader pointed out, BJP leaders such as former deputy CM Nirmal Singh, former ministers Sham Lal Choudhary and Priya Sethi, and several MLAs of the party, held grievance redressal events in Jammu. Their activities involved meeting meeting groups including  job aspirants, contractual employees, and university students, as well as events where residents highlighted their concerns about public amenities.

However, BJP spokesperson for J&K Sunil Sethi dismissed the idea that the AAP could emerge as a serious contender in Jammu.

“I do not see the AAP emerging as an alternative here even in the next 10 years. There are two broad reasons. First, there are too many regional players here and Jammu has very region-specific issues, where the AAP lacks experience. Second, they have no leadership here. All known leaders they have at this point are people who left the National Panthers Party — and most of them do not have a clean image in public,” he said.

A Jammu-based Congress leader said that the Congress, too, is closely watching the AAP. “There is a pattern so far. Wherever the AAP comes to power, it crushes the Congress vote base. We, too, are preparing to scale up our outreach drives,” he said.

In the Jammu region, the Congress’s number of seats came down to five in the 2014 assembly polls from 13 in the previous election.

But Raman Bhalla, working president of the Congress in Jammu and Kashmir, claimed that the party does not face any immediate threat from the AAP.

“It is true that there was some kind of a wave after the AAP won the Punjab polls, but now the deteriorating law and situation there is negatively affecting their growth prospects in Jammu. The Congress has an established leadership in the Jammu region. We feel no threat. But the BJP’s concerns regarding the AAP in the region makes sense because there is a visible anti-incumbency factor,” Bhalla added.

Tazeem Dar, spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said: “We see no immediate threat in the AAP but the BJP evidently does — because the AAP is particularly gaining popularity in the Hindu pockets at this point. There is a reason for that: They replicate the BJP in terms of political stand on faith-specific matters. That is why the BJP fears that the AAP can take away a chunk of their votes in the Jammu division.”

Rekha Chowdhary, a former professor of political science at the University of Jammu, said that there was a “vacuum of politics and leadership” in Jammu, and this could work to AAP’s advantage.

“People also want a change. So, no doubt, there is room for a party like the AAP. However, at this juncture, there is a lack of clarity on how much they (AAP) are actually invested in the region. Also, a lot of politicians from parties such as the National Panthers Party are joining the AAP in large numbers, which opens room for the same old infighting. That can emerge as a problem for the AAP. If they aspire to become a prominent player in Jammu’s politics, they have a lot of work to do in terms of investing in organisation structure,” she said.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)


Also Read: ‘No threat to Dogras’ — Kashmir Hindu teacher killed was scared but ‘told to resume duty’


 

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