Chance for BJP to fill vacuum as NC, PDP boycott but terror threats may deter mass participation

In 2011, as Jammu and Kashmir geared up for panchayat elections after a long hiatus, Ghulam Hassan Panzoo, then a teacher in the government’s service, resigned from his job to contest the polls from his village with the hope to drive forward development projects there. He won with 740 votes in the village – Panzoo in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district – that had about as many households, he said. After years of neglect infrastructure schemes had started to be undertaken but the awe that the law on papers inspired in…

Read More