Early Times Report
Jammu, June 19: Taking serious note of the failure of the party to mobilize the ethnic Pahari tribe in just concluded Lok Sabha elections, the central leadership of the BJP has asked the J&K unit to submit a report citing reasons Pahari Muslims voted for the opposition parties.
Highly placed sources said that the failure of the party to get the support of Paharis for Apni Party candidate Zaffar Iqbal Manhas has spoiled the BJP’s plan to achieve Mission 50 in the coming Assembly elections in J&K.
Despite opposition by the Gujjar-Bakerwal, the BJP-led government at the Centre granted Scheduled Tribe status to the ethnic Pahari tribe with the hope of making inroads among Muslims but the results of the Lok Sabha were not encouraging.
Apart from addressing the concern of the Gujjars and Bakerwals, the BJP has shifted its focus on Muslim Pahari leaders after passing the historic "Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Schedule Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023" in the Parliament last.
After the passing of this bill, the "Pahari ethnic group," "Paddari Tribe" "Koli," and "Gadda Brahman" communities will be included in the Scheduled Tribe List of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Scheduled Tribe status was long pending demand of the Pahari-speaking people of Jammu and Kashmir. After fulfilling this demand, the BJP is now trying to reap its political benefits by convincing prominent Pahari leaders to join the party.
After getting ST status, prominent Pahari leaders met with senior BJP leaders and wer Failure of the party to get the support of Paharis for Apni Party candidate Zaffar Iqbal Manhas has spoiled the BJP’s plan to achieve Mission 50 in the coming Assembly elections in J&K.
Despite opposition by the Gujjar-Bakerwal, the BJP-led government at the Centre granted Scheduled Tribe status to the ethnic Pahari tribe
Apart from addressing the concern of the Gujjars and Bakerwals, the BJP has shifted its focus on Muslim Pahari leaders.
Scheduled Tribe status was long pending demand of the Pahari-speaking people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Already a prominent Pahari face of Rajouri, Mohammad Iqbal Malik has joined the party and won the election as a DDC member on a BJP ticket.
After granting ST status to Paharis, the BJP was hoping to get the support of this community that is a dominant force in Poonch, Rajouri districts of Jammu province, and Baramulla and Kupwara districts in Kashmir Valley.
This community had been demanding ST status for decades and now their demand has been fulfilled. There are 9.6 lakh Pahari community people in J&K.
If we look at the results of the recent Lok Sabha elections, then broadly BJP will have the challenge of increasing the vote bank percentage in Muslim-dominated areas. BJP tried to gain a vote bank in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in the Lok Sabha elections, but could not get much success.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP supported the Apni Party on the Anantnag-Rajouri seat but it could not do anything special.
On this seat, NC's Mian Altaf Ahmed got 521836 votes, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti secured 240042 votes at the second position, while BJP-supported Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party's Zafar Iqbal Khan Manhas managed to secure only 142195 votes at the rate of 13.86 percent.
Similarly, among Kashmir-centric seats, the BJP had given outside support to the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Conference on the Baramulla seat. Apni Party had also not fielded any candidate for this seat. But here Sajjad Gani Lone of Peoples’s Conference secured 27488 votes at the rate of 16.76 percent and secured third position. | 