New Delhi: Eroding vote bank of the BharatiyaJanata Party not only in Jammu and Kashmir but across the country has been the reason for the party taking such a drastic decision. Restlessness was growing in a section of traditional BJP voters in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere, so the party decided to pull out of the coalition government.

Party leaders in the state's Jammu division said their core support was growing unhappy and the cadre dispirited over what is being seen as the PDP-BJP government's inability to deliver on the saffron party's two main planks -- development and crushing terrorism in Kashmir.

Analysts said a likely spell of governor's rule in the state will allow the central government to take tough measures against terrorism, which may provide the ruling BJP a plank in the 2019 LokSabha elections.

"It seems their (BJP's) image is going down on the issue of Kashmir. This is a kind of rebuilding of their image and they will hope to retrieve some ground," said ManindraNath Thakur, an associate professor with the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The BJP wants to bring some normalcy there before the elections and tell its support base that it means business on the issue of security, he said.

Even the recent rape and murder of a minor girl from a nomadic Muslim tribe in Kathua underlined the growing mistrust between the two parties with regional BJP leaders joining protests against the state police probe, which was strongly backed by the PDP.

At his press conference where he announced that the party was pulling out of the coalition government headed by Mehbooba Mufti, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav flagged the deterioration in the security situation as one of the reasons for the decision.

"The security scenario has deteriorated causing serious concern about the protection of basic fundamental rights of life, free speech, etc," he said.