Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Kashmir on March 7 — for the first time since his government revoked Article 370 in 2019 — two weeks after his visit to Jammu, where he announced a slew of development projects, distributed letters of appointment to 1,500 new government recruits, opened an IIT campus and inaugurated the erstwhile State’s first electric train. In Srinagar, he is to address a public meeting, and considering that elections are to be held soon, he is certain to make more announcements. But as far as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is concerned, two moves by the government in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) — one last month, and another in 2022 — have already paved the way for what it hopes will be its first ever Lok Sabha seat in the Kashmir Valley. That seat is Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir.
On February 6, the Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2024. It was passed in the Rajya Sabha three days later.
