The national leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Tuesday told the Jammu and Kashmir core group of the party to start preparing for the Assembly election in the State.
BJP working president J.P. Nadda chaired a meeting of State unit leaders in New Delhi, along with Jitendra Singh, BJP general secretary in charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Onus on EC
“We have already said that we wanted the polls as soon as possible. The Election Commission had decided that the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls could not be held together and security forces were also required for the Amarnath Yatra. We will be ready to face polls anytime the Commission decides,” BJP State unit chief Ravindra Raina said after the meeting.
The meeting that went on for a couple of hours also went into the details about booth-level preparedness and campaign strategy. “The basic point that was conveyed was that scamsters and various other players in the state have been rattled after measures such as the raids on the Jammu and Kashmir Bank an the successful conduct of the panchayat elections. These players are therefore creating confusion and deflecting from the real development that is being done and raising extraneous issues such as why additional central forces were deployed, etc. Party leaders have been told to keep the focus on development issues and action on corruption,” said a senior party leader.
No discussion was held on the abrogation of Article 35A or Article 370.
Poll strategy
“The meeting was purely on strategy for the polls, how to strengthen our booth level preparedness, and what shape the campaign should be. Our aim is to be the single largest party there,” said the source.
Government sources earlier told The Hindu that “security personnel in Kashmir have been in an extended duty without break for a long time for anti-terror operations followed by elections. So the infusion of personnel is basically to replace those going on leave.”
Senior ministers also said that panchayat heads, newly elected, will also be hoisting the tricolour in their respective panchayats on August 15, India’s Independence Day, and therefore additional security was to be provided for that too.
Jammu and Kashmir is currently under President’s Rule with the Parliament having cleared a six-month extension in this session itself.
