Electoral Process and Fallacy of New Delhi‘s Approach to Kashmir

The electoral history of Jammu and Kashmir presents a unique case in itself. For a long period elections were rigged so as to establish the control over the restive state. This abuse of electoral process let to outburst of militancy, leading to suspension of all democratic processes in the state. While the electoral process was revived from 1996, the people of Kashmir also showed great interest in this process especially since 2002. However, since the crisis in the state continues without any end, the participation of the people in electoral process has often led to diverse opinions. While the state usually portray them as success of Indian democracy and rejection of separatism, the counter discourse has viewed them in terms of addressing day-to-day governance problems with no impact on larger issue of Kashmir. This paper makes an in-depth analysis of the recent by-election for the Srinagar Parliamentary seat in Kashmir region and its impact on the overall discourse over Kashmir situation.