Can BJP afford to do business with Sajjad Lone in 2019 ?

Lone hitting the right notes

President of Peoples Conference Sajjad Lone has started giving tough competition, at least on TV debates, to dynastic leaders of two mainstream political parties in the state.

Now the question arises if BJP can really afford to do business with him in 2019 and risk their own constituency by putting all their eggs in his basket.

Though these young leaders have never come face to face with each other to discuss and debate the contours of a ‘possible‘ political solution to resolve the issue of Kashmir but they have already started positioning themselves and ready to play bigger roles in 2019.

Each one of them is aware of the fact that on their own they cannot form a majority government in the state and need the support of junior or senior alliance partner to form the government.

Since Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, both have tasted power in alliance with national parties in the state now it is the turn of Sajjad Lone to realise his dream of becoming Chief Minister.

Whether he can give tough competition to his political adversaries in the poll arena or turn out to be only a spoilsport will be only known once Assembly results are out.

Lone hitting the right notes:

To begin with, Sajjad Lone is hitting the right notes and making right noises in the corridors of power with active support from the BJP.

Even national media is offering him the platform at regular interval to showcase his ideas in front of the bigger audience and create a space for himself.

In the light of these developments, Sajjad Lone has started believing he is gradually inching closer to realising his dream of becoming Chief Minister of the state.

But before he reaches the top and occupies the ‘hot seat‘ he will have to cross many roadblocks.

He will not only have to win a sizeable number of Assembly seats, especially from North Kashmir area, but he will have to win the hearts and minds of the top brass of the BJP in New Delhi before his coronation.

At present several PDP leaders have joined hands with him and many more are expected to come but as long as he is not in a position to win at least one dozen seats from Kashmir valley he will not be able to extract his pound of flesh from his bigger alliance partner-BJP.

Now the question arises if BJP can really afford to do business with him in 2019 and risk their own constituency by putting all their eggs in his basket. BJP’s calculation is simple. They do not want to do business with National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party. Neither of these two parties can afford to align with the BJP in the present circumstances. So to come to power in the state BJP is left with the only option of supporting Sajjad Lone and help him win maximum seats to fill the gap. On its own BJP too will have to better its tally and cross 30 seats to take a shot at government formation in the state. Now, it looks easier said than done as BJP’s own image has been dented in the Jammu region and it is facing an uphill task to come up to the expectations of the electorate in the region.

To shore up his image in the eyes of the electorate Sajjad Lone is seriously working for an image makeover.

 

Sajjad Lone’s past is still haunting section of BJP leaders

On 22 November 2018, when Governor Satya Pal Malik had hurriedly dissolved the state assembly he had a letter from Sajjad Lone staking claim to form the government in the state with help from BJP and other like-minded MLA’s.

Before Lone, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti too had faxed her letter staking claim to form the government in the state with support from National Conference and Congress.

Though no formal talks were held between the political rivals but an understanding was arrived at to forge an alliance govt to keep Sajjad Lone supported by BJP out of power.

This sudden political development not only exposed the Kashmir based mainstream political parties and their machinations but also brought Sajjad Lone closer to BJP.

It was for the first time BJP had come out in the open to support Sajjad Lone, a party with only MLA’s to prevent Kashmir based leaders from forming the government in the state.

Lone working to change perception?

To shore up his image in the eyes of the electorate Sajjad Lone is seriously working for an image makeover.

Lone is even repeatedly raising question marks over the fair conduct of 1987, 1996,2002 Assembly polls in the state.

Recently, delivering a lecture in New Delhi Lone announced that his party would come out with a ‘white paper’ highlighting the Congress’ negative role in the erosion of the state’s autonomy in 10 days.

Speaking at a conference here on “Recalibrating the politics” organised by Observer Research Foundation, Sajad hit out at the Congress.

“Why does no one question the Congress’ stand on autonomy? What a farce that the Congress is projecting itself as a champion of the autonomy,” he said.

The Congress had trampled on the autonomy either alone, or while sharing power with the NC and PDP, he said.

Talking about the PDP-BJP coalition government, he said it fell because it could not deliver, and not due to ideological contradictions.

With regard to move by the PDP to form a government with the help of the NC and the Congress, he said the three parties exposed themselves by the move.

He said “I was the butt of jokes. I was humiliated all along,“When we used to fight elections in the past, we used to be laughed at. People used to call me ‘loner’, ‘loser’, ‘joker’ or someone with chief ministerial ambitions. Now I am ready to give them a tough fight and they will have to face competition.

Lone is even repeatedly raising question marks over the fair conduct of 1987, 1996,2002 Assembly polls in the state.

He said it was the rigging in 1987 state elections by National Conference leadership which led to the eruption of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Lone said that rigging of elections in 1987 was the greatest facilitator to change a historically peaceful population and trigger violence.

“I am not saying that it (1987 rigging of elections) was the cause but it definitely was the greatest facilitator to change a historically peaceful population and trigger violence. Nobody is talking about it. Why are we obsessed with only the symptom, killing is the symptom, there is a disease and 1987 is the part of the disease and unless you bring the perpetrators of 1987 to a book, this thing will not stop,” he said.

He said last week “Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah welcomed the recent court order handing over life imprisonment to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 Sikh riots case. The verdict plays a deterrent for others although the sentence was given after 34 years but who is responsible for the death and destruction in the valley and why they are being allowed to walk away with it,” he said.

Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.