Arjumand Shah
Srinagar, Aug 22 (KINS): As the Assembly elections draw nearer, it remains to be seen whether the NC and Congress can continue to increase their voter share.
Jammu and Kashmir is preparing for the much-anticipated Assembly election, the first since the region became a Union Territory in 2019 and the first in a decade.
The election for 90 seats will be held in three phases: September 18, 25, and October 1, with vote counting on October 4.
All political parties have intensified their campaigning and announced their candidates.
According to news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS), the BJP is unlikely to form an alliance; it will be interesting to see whether the party can reverse its declining voter share from the recent Lok Sabha polls.
The NC and Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, received 41.6% of the total votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections. In contrast, the BJP, Apni Party, and People’s Conference (PC), which opposed the INDIA bloc, managed to secure 31.7% of the vote share.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured two seats in Jammu with a 32.6% vote share. In the 2019 Parliamentary elections, voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir was 49.3%, and the BJP retained its two seats in Jammu and one in Ladakh, with its vote share increasing to 46.7%.
In the recent polls, the BJP did not field candidates in three Lok Sabha constituencies. Both the Apni Party and DPAP performed poorly, with their candidates forfeiting their security deposits. The Congress did not win any seats, but its vote share has increased from 28.6% in 2019. The NC, which won all three seats in the 2019 parliamentary polls, had a vote share of 7.9%. The combined vote share of NC and Congress in the recent polls increased to 41.6%. (KINS)
Will BJP stop NC, Congress from increasing voter share?
