Ditching its usual saffron colour palate in Kashmir, the BJP on Thursday opted to go green instead. To that end, ahead of the first phase of polls, locals across the state woke up to the party's advertisement blitzkrieg in local newspapers, using green as a medium to woo the electorate.

Leading the pack was BJP's candidate for Srinagar parliamentary constituency, Khalid Jehangir who issued all-green advertisements. Using Urdu and English, he pushed his message. Even the usually saffron BJP symbol, the lotus, was in white.

"In Kashmir the colours are changing and how! Such are the political colours of elections. How saffron has been greened! Or is it the PDP has left an indelible mark on the BJP palette?" tweeted Haseeb A Drabu, former PDP leader and finance minister, who was one of the architects of the Agenda of Alliance between PDP and BJP.

The BJP, however, downplayed the switch up and said too much should not be read into the green push as it signifies their mantra of 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikas'.

"We believe in all religion. We believe in secularism. We do not go into colours. For us all colours are same," said Altaf Thakur, state BJP spokesman, adding Kashmir is the land of saffron and lotus and these colours already exist in the valley. "We do not want to divide people on colours. Green is a sign of peace."