Ram Madhav returns as BJP’s election in-charge for assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, with G Kishan Reddy

The Bharatiya Janata Party has appointed RSS leader and former party general secretary, Ram Madhav as election in-charge for the upcoming Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Madhav is returning with a responsibility in the erstwhile state where he was instrumental in stitching up BJP's unlikely coalition government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 after the assembly polls threw up a hung verdict.

It is another matter that the alliance broke in 2018 after BJP withdrew its support to then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP. This also marks Madhav's return in active politics. He will share the responsibility in the Union Territory along with Union Minister G Kishan Reddy.

The three-phase assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir are scheduled to begin with the first round on September 18. The other two rounds are scheduled on September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on August 4.

A BJP statement said that party president JP Nadda has appointed the two leaders as poll in-charge.

It is unusual that two leaders are made election in-charge together as, generally, an in-charge is joined by one or more co-incharges by the BJP.

As a key BJP organisational leader between 2014-2020, Madhav was deeply involved with the politics of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir ten years ago.

The BJP leadership's decision to bring Madhav back underlines the useful role he may play for the party in navigating the Union Territory's politics, full of fault lines and contesting narratives, and devoid of an overarching theme, according to news agency PTI. The appointment also hints at the likely RSS role in the upcoming plls, the agency said quoting sources

Madhav was removed as BJP general secretary in 2020 and returned to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 2021 and was made an executive member of the Hindutva organisation.

Madhav is also the president of the think tank India Foundation and is a regular contributor to opinion pages in the media. In his previous tenure in the BJP, he was one of the more visible party general secretaries who also fronted its expansion drive in the Northeast region.

In 2014 assembly polls , the BJP got 25 seats, and the PDP won 28 seats in a House with 87 members before the two parties decided to form the government in the erstwhile state.

The BJP's efforts have yielded political dividends in Hindu-dominated Jammu region. The BJP did not field candidates in the three seats of Kashmir Valley in the Lok Sabha polls in assembly polls. It, however, won both seats of Jammu region in the general elections.

Even in past assembly polls, the BJP has won seats only in Jammu region which now has 43 seats in the 90-member house. The Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley has 47 seats.

Jammu and Kashmir is all set to hold its first Assembly elections in a decade to elect a government after over six years of Central rule. The notification for the first phase of the three-phased assembly elections inJammu and Kashmirwas issued on Tuesday. As many as 24 seats across 6 districts will vote in first phase on September 18,

(With PTI inputs)