There is a limit to ignoring genuine aspirations of the people and suppressing their legitimate voice in running the affairs of the state, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
In purely qualitative terms, the emotional outcome of the 2024 assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir resembles that of the last polls held a decade ago, in 2014.
And its potential implications pose quite a serious challenge in managing the affairs of the erstwhile 'semi-autonomous' state-reduced-to-Union Territory.
The National Conference has resoundingly regained its supremacy in its Muslim-majority stronghold -- the Kashmir Valley -- while the Bharatiya Janata Party has firmed up its hold on the Hindu-majority Jammu region.
The pitfalls involved in experimenting with out-of-the box resolution of this dilemma for the sake of managing the affairs of the state/UT are writ large in the unenviable fate of the Peoples Democratic Party whose ranking has fallen from being the top-most winner in the 2014 polls to near decimation in the very next round ten years later.
This thorny issue poses perhaps the toughest challenge to the National Conference leadership as it gets into the stride.
The National Conference's stellar performance in regaining its old glory on its traditional home turf stands out as the most marked feature of the assembly elections held in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir after ten long years.
The 2014 elections had left the National Conference with just 16 seats in the erstwhile House of 87 members.
The BJP's ability to stage a rearguard action in retaining -- and consolidating -- its grip upon its stronghold, Jammu region, at the expense of the Congress party, as well, qualifies to be acknowledged as a badge of honour.
In contrast, the Congress party's nearly worst ever poll performance ominously clouds its prospects in this prestigious border state.
The party in the UT now faces almost an existential threat if it fails to introspect and make course correction.
By and large the voting pattern in the assembly elections resembles that of the recent Lok Sabha elections with perhaps the only difference that the so-called 'Engineer Rashid' factor has been blown into bits almost at the threshold.
Omar Abdullah's stewardship seems in line with the imperatives of a new assertive generation spearheading the politics in the state, more vociferously in the Valley.
Massive popular participation in the voting process in Kashmir both in the Lok Sabha poll and the assembly elections contrasts with a long history of election boycotts and, importantly, portends its political follow up.
The message coming out of both the elections is loud and clear: There is a limit to ignoring genuine aspirations of the people and suppressing their legitimate voice in running the affairs of the state.
For the state leadership the challenge is no less serious. The people of the state, in both regions equally, have been feeling uneasy after the abolition of Constitutional guarantee they enjoyed, under Article 370 and Article 35A, in matters of jobs, property rights etc. Especially as these are in force in the neighbouring states like Himachal Pradesh.
The coming weeks and months would be interesting to watch for how the elected component of the system co-relates with the unfamiliar, untested, unelected but more powerful component. Delhi, as an example, is a nightmare.
For this very reason Omar Abdullah was initially reluctant to contest the assembly elections, but was prevailed upon by his father Farooq Abdullah to change his mind.
At the other hand of the political spectrum, political groups that were artificially crafted and floated mainly to nibble at the popular base of the National Conference and the PDP have virtually been decimated.
Whether any of these groups still remain afloats is unlikely to count in the reckoning.
However, the Peoples Conference's Sajad Ghani Lone has proved that he is made of a different material. He put up a commendable fight against heavy odds and won one of the two seats he contested.
He not only had to fight the National Conference wave but also grapple with several bush fires set alight on Lone's turf by Engineer Rashid after the latter was released on bail to campaign in the assembly poll.
The Engineer Rashid factor seems to have been finally extinguished after its short lived bright trajectory from the Lok Sabha elections in which his giant-killing feat of defeating Omar Abdullah -- as well as Sajad Lone -- from the Baramulla constituency made him an instant popular star.
But he was 'found out' soon after he was sought to be used as a 'brahamastra'.
