Abid Bashir
Srinagar, Jul 4: As the Assembly polls in J&K are seemingly coming closer, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has pulled up its socks and started massive deliberations right from New Delhi to J&K UT on how the party could win at least 40 seats.
A high level meeting was held in Delhi where core group leaders of BJP from J&K participated while an extended working committee meeting is scheduled to be held in Jammu on July 6 to be chaired by party chief BJP chief J P Nadda.
A source in the party said that BJP J&K chief Ravinder Raina will chair the party’s officer bearer’s meeting in Jammu on July 5 prior to the July 6 meeting. “All the meetings are important to frame future policy and to take some crucial decisions with regard to Assembly polls slated for September this year,” he said. “A massive ground work is going on right from Delhi to Srinagar to Jammu. Every leader has been assigned a role and we are supposed to brief our respective heads about the party’s strength on ground zero.”
A senior BJP leader said that a high level meeting was held in Delhi late this evening that was chaired by party chief Nadda. Those who attended the meeting from J&K were Ravinder Raina, party General Secretary (Org) Ashok Koul, General Secretary Sunil Sharma and two MPs—Dr Jitendera Singh and Jugal Kishore
“We discussed whether we could form the government in J&K, that’s it…..Shared our feedback with the high command in Delhi. Our target is to win 40 seats minimum,” a BJP leader, who attended the meeting said, wishing anonymity. “There will be more deliberations back home and a road map will be fine-tuned in the days ahead.”
BJP General Secretary (Org) Koul confirmed that the meeting was held in Delhi in a cordial atmosphere late on Thursday evening. He, however, didn’t disclose the agenda stating that “we discussed strategy for Assembly polls.”
He said that in the July 6 extended working committee meeting of BJP, district presidents, constituency heads, booth in-charges and others will participate and share their feedback.
“Our sole motive is to win maximum seats but the recent ground situation during the Parliament elections in Kashmir has raised curtain concerns,” the BJP leader said. “Our efforts are whether we can address those concerns and reach the 40 seat mark in Assembly polls?
It may be recalled that during a recent visit to Srinagar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had asked the BJP leadership in J&K to gear up for the Assembly polls adding that the “the party will contest on all assembly seats.”
In the recently concluded Parliamentary polls, BJP hailed the massive participation of people in the process publicly. However, the party started pondering as to why BJP’s “proxy candidates” couldn’t win from Kashmir. A party insider said that there were clear cut directions from the top that the BJP vote should go to the parties other than National Conference, PDP and Congress. BJP had not fielded any candidate in Kashmir. In Jammu, BJP has a strong base as its leaders Dr Jitendera Singh and Jugal Kishore won with a huge margin for the third straight time.
On the occasion of International Yoga Day, Prime Minister Narendera Modi while addressing a function at SKICC in Srinagar, stated that day was not far when J&K people would choose their own government. He had added that time was not far when J&K would once again march towards success and prosperity as a “State.”
