Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing its most crucial Assembly election after a 10-year-long wait. There is hectic jockeying over seats with politicians switching from one political party to another in a desperate bid to ensure a party ticket. In all, 279 candidates applied for 24 seats for which voting will take place in the first phase on September 18. The list has been pared down to 219 candidates from which 91 are standing as Independents.

It is almost as though any politician worth his salt believes he must be seen to be standing for election even in the likelihood of facing a defeat. Between five to eight candidates are contesting every seat. Political analysts believe that while the Lok Sabha election saw J&K’s highest turnout in 35 years at 58.56%, this was a significant increase from 19.16% in 2019.

Eyebrows are being raised at the large number of Independents who are contesting. For politicians and political parties in this trouble-torn union territory, the ending of the political hiatus has now been replaced by a desperate fight for survival and relevance. Given the dramatically altered reality resulting from the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A and the skewed delimitation process which has altered the map of this erstwhile state, politicians themselves are trying to come to terms with how these changes will get reflected in the way the public will vote.

Of course, a large number of those contesting as Independents are candidates who failed to get a nomination from mainstream parties. Take the example of Valley politician Altaf Bukhari who contested the 2014 polls from the Central Salteng seat on a PDP ticket but then, following the abrogation of Article 370, moved to the Apni Party founded by businessman Altaf Bukhari. With the Apni Party regarded as a BJP proxy in the valley and faring poorly in the Lok Sabha 2024 election, he is now contesting the........

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