With all the major political party offices wearing desolate look in Kashmir after majority of senior political leaders and party functionaries were put in detention in wake of abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) is calling the shots in Kashmir to strengthen its base.According to the wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the party leadership claims to have filling the political vacuum left in last two months by working extensive on ground to fill the “political vacuum” in the Valley.“In last two months, 300 panchayat members have joined the BJP in Kashmir- raising their number over 1500 members in the party fold,” Altaf Thakur, party’s J&K, Media In-charge told KNO.The political workers preferred to stay away from political activities in last two months, fearing detention or wrath by BJP or the state administration run by it in the Valley. “On usual days, these places would have been abuzz with people and leaders, discussing politics, peoples’ issues and people thronging with grievances, and leaders issuing letters to administration asking for favors in favor of their workers,” a senior politician of a nationalist party from Kashmir said.“Now these wear desolate look. No activity. No buzz. No politics,” he added.
In these circumstance, BJP office is running normally and its office bearers are working tirelessly to gain more and more foothold in the Valley. “Every day over 50 small and large delegation visit our party office at Jawahar Nagar to meet our party functionaries, suggest way forward, share thoughts and some ask for favours,” a party functionary said, wishing anonymity, told KNO.This rise for BJP is happening at a time, when Political offices of all the three major political parties National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress in Kashmir are virtually shut as there are no visitors since August 5, after restrictions were imposed in Kashmir and scores of political activists were taken into the preventive detention to thwart the protests.National Conference (NC) Kashmir’s old and largest political party office is located at Zero Bridge and in last more than two weeks hardly a countable number of visitors had visited the office.Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) office is located at Shar e Kashmir Park which is no different than NC office.The Congress party office situated on Maulana Azad road narrates the same story.(KNO)