JP Nadda sounds poll bugle in Jammu and Kashmir, asks BJP cadre to go ‘full throttle’
Addressing the BJP’s executive working committee meeting in Jammu, JP Nadda urge party workers to gear up for the assembly elections and ensure the party’s win.
The Bharatiya Janata Party national president and Union minister JP Nadda on Saturday asked the party rank and file to go “full throttle” for the upcoming assembly polls and ensure the saffron party’s victory in the UT.
Addressing the party’s executive working committee meeting in Jammu, Nadda said, “The BJP has a clean policy, a clear conscience and has devised programmes. I urge all of you to gear up for the assembly elections and ensure the party’s win.”
Last year, the Supreme Court ordered the Election Commission to hold assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir before September 30 this year.
Referring to eight medical colleges set up in Jammu and Kashmir under BJP rule, he said, “If Jammu has to progress and develop further, Lotus has to bloom here”.
He also accused the Opposition, including principal opponent, the Congress, of indulging in vote bank politics.
Earlier in his address at a rally he said, “I have the privilege of coming here on the birth anniversary of our founding president Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee. I pay my respects to him. Mukherjee had a special relation with Jammu and Kashmir.”
“Mukherjee never stopped in his life, he did not work for any position, prestige and rather dedicated his life to strengthen the idea of ’Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” he added.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina also urged workers and leaders to work together to ensure that the BJP wins with a clear majority to have its first chief minister.
“We have to take a pledge that we will work with the aim of getting a majority in the next assembly elections. Our resolve is to form the next government on our own and have a BJP Chief Minister and we will have to work together to achieve this goal,” he asserted.
Raina also accused the Congress and the National Conference of exploiting various sections of the people for their vote bank politics, expressing gratitude to the 15 lakh party workers, who worked hard and ensured the victory of BJP candidates from the two Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have to rededicate ourselves and do better than the Congress and the National Conference,” he said, adding that the Modi-led government provided justice to various deprived sections of the society, including West Pakistani and PoJK refugees, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Paharis.
Other prominent BJP leaders, including union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Jitendra Singh, national general secretary, Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Tarun Chugh and former deputy chief ministers Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta also attended the meeting.
Reddy, who is the BJP’s election in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir, said the meeting is part of the party’s nationwide programmes for the next four months.
“The party has planned similar meetings in other states as well. We are having a relook at the Lok Sabha results, receiving feedback from workers and preparing a roadmap for the next three to four months,” he said.
“Following the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir now has a positive atmosphere and you will see that the party’s support base is getting stronger,” he said.
The last elected government of the BJP and the Peoples Democratic Party had fallen apart on June 19, 2018 after the former pulled out of the alliance over a worsening security scenario.
The last assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir was held in 2014 that saw a coalition government of BJP and PDP headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
After Sayeed’s death in 2016, the coalition was headed by his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti before BJP pulled the plug on June 19, 2018.
Next year on August 5, the BJP government at the Centre had revoked Article 370 and 35-A, which guaranteed separate constitution and special status to Jammu and Kashmir. That day J&K was bifurcated into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.