In a bid to quell rebellion within the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), party president J.P. Nadda on Monday (September 9, 2024) appointed Sat Sharma as working president of the unit, with senior leaders Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta being appointed as chiefs of the campaign committee and election management committee, respectively, for the forthcoming Assembly election. Mr. Nadda also appointed Choudhary Sukhnandan as vice president of election campaign committee.
All three leaders are veterans of the State unit. Mr. Singh was the Deputy Chief Minister during the BJP’s alliance government with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir between 2014-2018, and has been denied a ticket to contest in the Assembly election, the first in the Union Territory after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
Rebellion in the ranks had grown rampant after the BJP released and then rescinded a list of 44 candidates, which made it clear that several senior leaders of the party had been left out in the cold. Subsequent lists of candidates released by the BJP also made it clear that these leaders were out of the fray.
As rebellion grew, and resignations from district-level units of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir piled up, including those of Kashmir Singh, former chief of the party’s district unit in Jammu; and party president and senior leader Chandra Mohan Sharma. The BJP president then dialled these senior leaders to calm things down. BJP in-charge of the election in Jammu and Kashmir, Ram Madhav, also undertook a meeting along the lines of a charm offensive, and spoke to these leaders. While some leaders did step back, several others announced their resignation from the party.
Monday’s appointments are therefore part of the series of actions taken by the BJP’s national leadership as it faces headwinds in the upcoming Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir. “It is, in a very obvious way, an effort to quell rebellion, and get the party to unite and fight the poll. This is a tough and historic election, and we have to put our best foot forward,” a senior BJP leader said.
Published - September 09, 2024 05:37 pm IST