The Srinagar Lok Sabha seat will vote on May 13 amid a poll fever in the once ‘boycott capital’ of Jammu & Kashmir, which saw less than 14% voting in 2019. Rare late-evening door-to-door campaigns, musical events at rallies and whirring vehicles of political parties have brought with it a paradigm shift in mainstream politics here. It is the first time in over 30 years that ideology and not the slogan of ‘sadak, bijli, pani‘ (road, electricity and water) have taken centre stage.
With neither the BJP nor the Congress fielding candidates in Srinagar, it remains a contest mainly between former allies, National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of the People’s Alliance of the Gupkar Declaration, an amalgam forged to restore the pre-August 5, 2019 position. J&K Apni Party, which came into being after 2019, has fielded Ashraf Mir, a former PDP leader, as the candidate.
These elections are evenly poised between J&K’s two main traditional parties, the NC and the PDP, who are slugging it out over ideology to win votes in a constituency considered the bastion of separatists.
