In last assembly elections BJP’s poll activity was restricted to election banners and hoardings in Srinagar and some selected pockets of Kashmir valley but alliance of PDP and Peoples Conference with BJP has emboldened the saffron party to hold election meetings in selected pockets of Kashmir valley in the ongoing lok sabha elections this time. Since the alliance of PDP and Peoples Conference (PC) has granted an opportunity to BJP to spread its wings in Kashmir valley and exercise control over some municipal and panchayat bodies in last year’s civic polls due to the boycott by National Conference (NC) and PDP, the Kashmir’s regional political parties particularly PDP and Peoples Conference cease the moral right to be the critics of saffron party as both the parties have virtually sponsored the BJP in Kashmir valley . Though National Conference was the first to choose an alliance with BJP almost 20 years back when late Attal Bihari Vajpayee was heading the first BJP led NDA government at the centre but neither PDP nor Peoples Conference can deny the fact that Farooq Abdullah as Chief Minister of the state did not offer any share to BJP in his government in Jammu & Kashmir even after BJP led NDA government headed by late Vajpayee offered his son Omar Abdullah the position of minister of state (MoS) with the prized portfolio of foreign affairs. Alliance of PDP and Peoples Conference saw BJP mustering the courage to lay legal traps against Article 370 the legislation giving special status to Jammu & Kashmir state and Article 35-A the legislation protecting the hereditary state subject law enforced in the state since 1927 but the bonhomie of PDP and Peoples Conference with BJP did not see Modi government showing its willingness to either return power projects or withdraw any draconian legislation like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) or Public Safety Act (PSA) as was highlighted in the agenda of alliance (AoA) the power sharing agreement signed between PDP and BJP for keeping contentious issues into oblivion.
Ironically Peoples Conference even after the fall of Mehbooba government tried its best to form a government with the support of PDP defectors in alliance with BJP. Having themselves emboldened BJP to ban Jamat-e-Islami and JKLF by giving a clean chit to National Investigative Agency (NIA) for conduct of investigations against separatist leaders, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peoples’ Conference (PC) cease the moral right to challenge Modi government on curbs against separatists and bans over separatist political groups and religious organizations in Jammu & Kashmir state. Shocking, hurting and humiliating it is that both PDP and Peoples Conference don’t bother to regret over their suicidal alliance with BJP even now and they are surprisingly offering contradictory explanations over their alliance with BJP.