Smaller Parties Poised to Play Kingmaker Role in Jammu & Kashmir’s Election Drama

With multiple leaders and analysts predicting the possibility of a hung House, these smaller players and independents are hoping to play “kingmakers” on October 8, the day of the results

Poll campaigning has already reached its peak across Jammu and Kashmir, with leaders from parties big and small canvassing for their respective candidates. Besides the two national parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party — and regional powerhouses — the National Conference and the PDP — smaller political parties have fast emerged as dark horses.

People’s Conference

The People’s Conference (PC) founded five decades ago by Abdul Gani Lone is now headed by his son and former minister, Sajjad Lone. The party and Jamaat-e-Islami, despite having few legislators in the assembly before the 1990s, played an active part in ensuring a vibrant Opposition with the Panthers Party led by late Prof Bhim Singh. The PC did not contest polls during the militancy years and even lost its symbol. Its fortunes changed when the 2014 assembly polls saw Sajjad Lone get elected from Handwara. The party also bagged Kupwara and joined hands with the PDP-BJP coalition government. Lone remained cabinet minister till the government fell.

After the abrogation of Article 370, Lone tried to expand his party’s base by wooing leaders from other outfits. He contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Baramulla but faced a drubbing, which made way for desertions. The ensuing assembly elections hold significance for the party as it’s contesting from 22 seats. The party leadership hopes to bag 4 to 7 seats to ensure being a part of the post-poll alliance conversations. Another defeat, meanwhile, will put its future in limbo. While NC vice-president Omar Abdullah has constantly attacked Lone for being a “BJP proxy”, the leader has made it clear that his party will go with a secular alliance whatever be the consequences.

Apni Party

Former minister Altaf Bukhari formed the Apni Party soon after abrogation of Article 370 and was the first politician from Jammu and Kashmir to lead a delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah. The assembly election is going to be the first big political test for the Apni Party, which is contesting on 60 assembly seats (40 in Kashmir and 20 in Jammu).

The party had faced a setback during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls when both its candidates lost their deposits in Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seats. Such was the impact that the party’s candidate from Anantnag-Rajouri, Zaffar Iqbal Manhas, also left the party. His exit was followed by a dozen leaders, including former legislators and ministers, also jumping ship. Most senior party leaders acknowledge that the party is unlikely to close in on a double-digit number once the results are out, but hope to bag enough seats to still have some bargaining power.

Democratic Progressive Azad Party

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) became the latest entrant in the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir after it was founded September 2022. Azad had just ended his five-decade long association with the Congress, a party that he had led in the region for decades. However, DPAP, which he wanted to pitch as an “alternative” to regional forces like the NC and the PDP failed in its first political test, with all its three 2024 Lok Sabha election candidates losing their deposits.

Like in the case of other smaller parties, a string of desertions followed after the Lok Sabha defeat and over a half dozen party leaders parted ways with DPAP. Azad planned to stitch an alliance with regional leaders who were not aligned with others or had recently quit their parties but the efforts came to naught. The party’s campaign has been rather subdued with Azad also taking brief time away citing ill health. Party leaders, however, hope the party will be able to muster a respectable number from the 25 assembly seats that it is contesting from.

Awami Ittehad Party

Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid founded the Awami Ittehad Party in 2012. The firebrand leader from north Kashmir has been elected to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly as an independent in 2009 and 2014 from Langate. He first contested Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and managed to secure more than 1 lakh votes. Then came the big surprise as he, contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Tihar jail, defeated NC vice-president Omar Abdullah and PC chairperson Sajjad Lone by a big margin in Baramulla. Rashid, whose politics has been centred around highlighting public grievances and picking fights with ruling dispensation, especially the BJP, is now looking to translate that success to the assembly polls.

The party, which is not officially registered, has fielded candidates from 35 seats in the Valley (north Kashmir being its stronghold) as independents. After his recent release from Tihar on an interim bail, Rashid, who has significant sway with the youth, has been campaigning across Kashmir and even targeting the BJP, PM Narendea Modi and home minister Amit Shah. He has also emerged as a strong adversary of two former CMs, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, who view him as another “BJP proxy”. Source