New Delhi
With three pet poll planks a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Article 35A pertaining to Kashmir and Uniform Civil Code still on the backburner and demonetisation classified as a “failure”, the BJP appears to be left with no other option but to fall back on ‘vikas’ , BSP (Bijli, Sadak and Pani) and NRC for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, who is set to retire on October 2, is heading the three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court which is hearing the contentious Babri Masjid-Ram Temple land dispute case. Misra is expected to deliver judgments in important cases pertaining to the legality of Aadhaar and whether to refer the issue of mosques being essential to Islam to a larger Bench a case that may have a bearing on the Ayodhya dispute as well.

Meanwhile, the saffron party’s historical poll issue Uniform Civil Code seems to be headed nowhere. Underlining that the UCC was “neither necessary nor desirable at this stage”, the Law Commission of India recently argued for reform of family laws of every religion through amendments and codification of certain aspects so as to make it gender-just.

So far as Article 35A is concerned, the Supreme Court has already adjourned to January 2019 hearing on petitions against it after both the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir sought deferment citing law and order problem and preparations for local body elections in the state.

Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential Order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. Removal of Article 370 and 35A have been part of the BJP’s traditional poll planks.

Another reason why apart from various “vikas” development-related schemes for farmers, SC/STs, women, OBCs and poor and the NRC to woo the voters, the BJP also appears to be working on fructifying the Citizenship Bill, 2016 a legislation that will directly help minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains) in neighbouring countries settle in India before the next Lok Sabha elections.