As the Election Commission has sounded the poll bugle in Jammu and Kashmir with just four days to file nomination papers for the first phase, political parties are facing an uphill task to devise their poll agendas, slogans and strategies to attract the electorate. The parties face alienation and a boycott by separatists in Kashmir while the problem in Jammu is polarisation as BJP is all set to make a success of the recent agitation on Amarnath land transfer row as a potent poll plank.

The Kashmir-centric People’s Democratic Party — which had uprooted National Conference in Kashmir winning in 17 constituencies in the 2002 Assembly polls — is yet to officially decide whether to fight polls or not. “Our consultations are on. Some people say we should not contest; some say we should,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti told The Indian Express. “We haven’t taken a decision as yet.”

“One thing that nobody has noticed is that despite acknowledging the difficult situation, the EC has given just four days for filing the nomination papers,” she said. “In normal circumstances, they give at least 10-15 days so that political parties are able to choose their candidates.”

J-K’s largest political party, NC, however, seems ready to join the fray and has already framed a larger poll manifesto even though they, too, face a difficult task to generate public interest in their poll campaign in Kashmir valley. Their plans are to make the Congress-PDP coalition Government’s track record as an issue. “We will go to people with the previous Government’s track record, especially the mess that they created in the past six months (regarding Amarnath land transfer controversy),” said NC president Omar Abdullah.

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