Party System in Jammu and Kashmir

A brief introduction of the state

Jammu and Kashmir is a state in the northwest of India. It was divided into three divisions
namely, Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. The state has now been bifurcated into two union
territories after the Indian govt. scrapped the special status of Art. 370 on August 5 this year,
when the central govt. introduced the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill 2019. Jammu and
Kashmir was the only state to have its own flag apart from the Indian flag. The state flag
consisted a native plough on a red background with three stripes which represented the three
regions. After the abrogation of Art. 370, the flag lost its official status.

Party System in the state

Party system in the politics of the state started with the dominance of the National Conference
when it came into power in 1947. Being the fore runner, in the freedom struggle against Dogra
rule, since its inception, the National Conference was able to dominate the political landscape of
the state with its ideology of Secularism, Socialism and democracy. National Conference had
established the dominance of one political party under the leadership of Sheikh Mohammad
Abdullah in all its phases: be it the freedom struggle launched in 1931 by the Sheikh Abdullah or
the Accession of J&K to the Indian Union after independence in 1947, coupled with the arrest of
Sheikh Abdullah 1953- 1972.
. Democratic Politics in Jammu and Kashmir started also with hegemonic party
system and electoral space was dominated by a single party that is National Conference as it
assumed power in Legislative cum Constituent Assembly elections of 1951. The people of
Jammu and Kashmir in their totality swung to the National Conference through the politics of
Naya Kashmir Manifesto which was unanimously adopted on 29th and 30th September 1944 at
Sopore session in Kashmir and declared it as the objective of National Conference. Since the
assumption of power by the leaders of freedom struggle, the NC further dominated the course of
state politics. NC not only administered the state at domestic level but it played a vital role at the
national level of politics. At domestic front the first and foremost task of Sheikh Administration
was to invite the peasants to cultivate rent free land they worked upon. This was in conformity
with the declared policy of the NC that is “Land to Tiller.” The orders with regard to the Big
Landed Estates Abolition Act were issued on 13 July 1950.4 The land reforms thus received a
wide publicity at the National and International level and act was appreciated because it was the
first Asia state to enunciate this golden act for the welfare of the people. Of course the
democratic politics in the state started with a hegemonic party system, but over the time the party
politics started changing and some level of competition was introduced.

The party system of the state can be divided into three phases.
The first phase of party politics that started in 1951 and continued till the 1972 Assembly
elections, was characterized by dominance of a single party and almost a near-total absence of
the opposition. During the first Legislative cum constituent Assembly election of 1951, there was
the presence of Praja Parishad in the oppositional space, but the party boycotted the election due
to the bulk rejection of nomination papers of its candidates – with the result that all the seats of
the Assembly were captured by the National Conference. The hegemony of the National
Conference continued in the 1962 elections also when it captured 70 out of 75 seats of the
state. The only opposition that existed comprised of 3 Praja Parishad members and two
independents. In 1965, the National Conference was dissolved and merged with the Indian
National Congress and in its new Avatar, the party could again dominate the electoral scene
capturing more than 80% seats of the Assembly. In 1972, the party’s strength in the Assembly
was slightly reduced to 77% but that was mainly due to a large number of victories of the
independent candidates (12%). The opposition was still very negligible and weak.

The second phase of the party politics started in the year 1972. The high of this phase was the
introduction of the element of some competition and emergence of oppositional space. However,
the dominance of the single party was still to continue. What differentiated this phase from
the earlier one was that the hegemonic role of the ruling party was over. Though the
opposition parties were not in a position to provide alternative to the ruling party, but the
electoral space had become somewhat competitive. 1977 was actually a three-cornered contest
between NC (that was revived in 1975), Congress and the newly formed Janata Party. The NC
was able to maintain its dominance capturing 61% seats in the Assembly, but as many as 24/76
seats were captured by Janata Party and Congress (Janata Party 13 and Congress 11) Though the
Janata Party fizzled out very soon, the competitive element continued.
However, by this time, two more elements were introduced in the party politics of the
state. First, there was a specificity in the nature of party competition within two major regions of
the state. Even when the electoral space of Kashmir remained hegemonied by a single party, the
National Conference; the electoral space of Jammu region had started becoming quite
competitive. The hegemonic control of the NC in Kashmir was clearly reflected with 39/42 seats
in 1977 and 38/42 seats in 1983. In Jammu meanwhile, the seats were divided among Janata
(11), Congress (10), NC (7) and independents in 1977 and between Congress(26) and NC (7) in
1983.
Second, there started evolving an electoral divide on regional basis. While the Janata Party was
dissolved very soon, the two remaining parties started having their regional strongholds. While
the NC drew its major strength from Kashmir, Congress drew it from Jammu region. The
regional polarization on party basis was clearly reflected in the 1983 elections. The National
Conference captured as many as 90% of seats from Kashmir valley (38/42), the Congress
captured 70% of the seats from Jammu region (26/37). This trend was to change for some time
when these two competing parties entered into an alliance in 1987. By winning all but four seats
of Kashmir region during the 1996 Assembly elections, the NC was able to continue its
hegemonic role in that region.

The party politics entered into its third phase in 2002 when the dominance of the single party
within the Assembly was challenged for the first time. The major development during this phase
was the emergence of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) which fragmented the electoral
space of Kashmir. PDP was formed by late former Chief Minister of the state and former Union
Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in the year 1988. After its formation the party
contested the 2002 assembly elections for the first time. Giving a strong competition to the NC,
this party was able to win as many as 16 seats from the valley. The strength of NC was reduced
to 18. There were other smaller political parties which also could make their mark – while 5 seats
were obtained by the Congress, 2 by CPM, 1 by JKAL, four seats were won by independent
candidates. Jammu’s electoral space was as usual fragmented between the Congress (15), NC
(09), Panthers Party (4), BJP (1), BSP (1), DM (1) and independents 5. What was peculiar about
this election was that no party was able to obtain majority in the Assembly. Though the National
Conference emerged as the largest party yet the number it had obtained (28) made it difficult for
it to form the government. Hence the era of coalition politics started. This trend continued
through the 2008 election as well.
Intense competition and fragmented electoral space is therefore the hall mark of the third
phase of the party politics. The state had travelled a long way from hegemonic and dominant
politics of a single party to a multiparty politics with more than one party competing for power
and the power being alternated between one combination of parties and another. Like the 2002
and 2008 election, the 2014 election was also marked by intensified competition. No single party
got majority of seats with which a govt. could be formed. Majority of the seats were won by
Peoples Democratic Party. Once again the newly formed govt. was the result of coalition
between the two major winning parties i.e. PDP and BJP. The region of Ladakh, which had till
now remained untouched by this phenomenon has also joined the rest of the state. Apart from the
traditional competitors here, i.e., NC and Congress, the BJP and the PDP have also joined the
fray here in a big way.
The PDP-BJP coalition govt. fell just after three years of its formation in March 2015 when BJP
ended its alliance with PDP saying that it was becoming untenable for the party to continue in
alliance with PDP in Jammu & Kashmir. The PDP Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti sent her
resignation to the governer adding that the party is not looking to explore any other alliance.
Soon after the breakup governer rule was imposed in the state. And after the completion of 6
months of governer rule, President rule was imposed in December 2018. Since then, no elections
for the state assembly has been conducted, in spite that the assembly elections were to be held
this year.

Conclusion
Therefore, the party system in the state was not a static one. It kept changing with time, started
with a hegemony and with time the dominance of single party was lost and then ending with a
coalition government. Several new political parties were formed in the recent times. The state
party system also saw the entry of erstwhile separatist group People’s Conference in the 2014
assembly elections led by Sajjad Gani Lone. The party system in the Ladakh region seems
ending, as it has been granted a UT status after separating from the J&K union when Art. 370
was scrapped by the union govt. on Aug 5 2019.

REFERENCES;

1) One-Party Dominance and its Breakdown in Jammu and Kashmir By Shazia Majid (PhD
Research Scholar) University of Kashmir (For the whole body part).
2) Wikipedia and The Hindu for the Introduction and conclusion part.

Najeeb-ul Hussain

B.A. (Hons) Social Science