“BETTER THAN NOTHING”
The territory, officially titled Jammu and Kashmir, is split.
One part is the overwhelmingly Muslim Kashmir Valley. Another is the Hindu-majority Jammu district, geographically divided by mountains to the south.
A third section, the high-altitude ethnically Tibetan Ladakh region, bordering China, was carved into a separate federal territory in 2019.
Some of the worst violence this year has been in Jammu, where Modi campaigned for votes on Saturday and, in a reference to rebel groups fighting Indian rule, vowed that “terrorism is on its last legs”.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim that the changes to the territory’s governance have brought a new era of peace to Kashmir and rapid economic growth.
The implementation of those changes in 2019 was accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long internet and communications blackout.
While this is the first ballot for the local assembly since 2014, voters took part in national elections in June when Modi won a third term in power.
Jammu farmer Syed Ali Choudhary, 38, acknowledged the assembly’s powers will “be much less” than before.
“Something is better than nothing,” he said.
