Click to play videoJammu: The Amarnath land agitation has returned and this time on the election stage. It is the seventh and final round of elections in Jammu and Kashmir and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying hard to cash in on the Amarnath agitation factor.
The party hopes to win over the Hindu vote bank in Jammu and has given tickets to candidates like Shilpi Verma, wife of Kuldeep Verma, who had allegedly committed suicide over the land row. Shilpi, a housewife with two children, has the support of party big wigs.
The Congress had swept the 2002 state elections in the region, winning 16 of its 22 seats. But this time, the BJP hopes the tide will be in its favour.
“Amarnath agitation was fight between nationalistic forces and separatists,” says senior BJP leader L K Advani.
The Congress though is keeping its fingers crossed.
“No one has talked about the issue at all,” says senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Political analysts say that the elections have actually bridged the gaps which the Amarnath agitation created.
“Except for the BJp, no one is talking about it. In fact it has had an inverse effect,” says political analyst Rekha Choudhary.
In 1953, the Praja Parishad launched an agitation for abolition of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and after that the party for the first time won five seats. Given that history the BJP is hoping that the Amarnath agitation helps them to improve their tally too.
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