BJP’s goof up with J&K Assembly poll list invites dissension

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BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir list triggers internal backlash

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi, August 26: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) invited workers’ wrath on Monday after a goof up in releasing the list of the candidates for the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections. The BJP workers with allegiance to party leaders who missed out from the withdrawn list are holding protests.

The Central Election Committee of the BJP had met to discuss the list of the candidates for J&K Assembly polls. The party’s newly appointed in-charge for J&K Ram Madhav also attended the meeting of the BJP CEC.

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Later, the BJP released the list of 44 candidates for all the three phases of the elections. The list didn’t include the BJP heavyweights from the Jammu region.

But the BJP shortly withdrew the list of the candidates. The BJP afterwards released a truncated list of candidates for the first phase of the Assembly elections.

The BJP claimed that the party had meant to release the names for the first phase of the elections only. But the names of the candidates for all the phases were mistakenly released.

The BJP’s two lists had names of 15 and one candidate respectively. But the party workers were already up in arms after seeing the list of the 44 candidates.

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The name of former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Nirmal Singh was missing from the withdrawn list. The BJP is likely to contest about 70 seats in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has a total of 90 seats. Jammu region has 43 Assembly seats. The Kashmir region has 47 Assembly seats.

The withdrawn list of the BJP had as many as 15 Muslims. Many of the candidates from the withdrawn list were from the Kashmir valley.

Former ministers in Jammu and Kashmir Satpal Sharma and Priya Sethi also didn’t figure in the withdrawn list of the candidates. The BJP appears to have fielded a large number of new candidates.

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The BJP workers began protesting the party offices, alleging that turncoats were being favoured. They alleged that a former Congress leader who had joined the BJP only two days ago was also given the party ticket.

The BJP had inducted a large number of leaders from the Congress in the Jammu region. The BJP is keen to win a maximum number of seats from the Jammu region.

Jammu and Kashmir BJP President Ravinder Raina has said that he met party workers who were angry at the release of the list of the candidates. He said that the party workers have understood the reasons for the selection of the candidates.

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