Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the rise in voting percentage from 14% in the past to 37% on Tuesday in the Kashmir Valley seat of Srinagar, which went to the polls in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha election, was the “greatest testament to the rightness of the decision” to removing Article 370.
Mr. Shah said this during an interview with The Hindu. Article 370 had provisions for special status being accorded to the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, which was removed in August 2019 by Parliament. The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are the first set of elections on the basis of political parties since then in the Kashmir Valley.
Mr. Shah also explained the BJP’s decision to not field a candidate in the three Valley seats of Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag-Rajouri. “There was an apaprachar (propaganda) against us that the Centre was doing development work in the J&K Valley to enforce rajnaitik prabhutva (political sovereignity) of the BJP there. After much serious thought, we decided that we will first build up our organisation on the ground and then give a candidate to fight polls,” he said.
