J&K Congress Spokesperson Crosses Over to BJP, Praises PM Modi’s Vision for Kashmir

Recalling the troubles J&K went through in the 1990s and subsequent years of hartals and stone pelting, Sirwal said Modi’s government had put a check on such incidents.

Jahanzaib Sirwal, Congress’s Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson, joined the BJP on Thursday and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for presenting a “new image” of Kashmir before the rest of the country and abroad.

Joining the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and party general secretary Vinod Tawde, Sirwal expressed his appreciation of the PM for the abrogation of J&K’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, saying the move had truly made the Union Territory the “crown of the country”.

Recalling the troubles J&K went through in the 1990s and subsequent years of hartals and stone pelting, Sirwal said Modi’s government had put a check on such incidents. “The way the Modi government has presented a new image of Kashmir before the country and people abroad has been the biggest inspiration for youth,” he said.

While Siwal’s switch just days before Lok Sabha elections is seen as a setback to the Congress, especially in Kishtwar district where he is from, senior party leaders played down its significance, saying he was not an important leader.

Kishtwar comes under the Udhampur-Kathua Lok Sabha constituency, which goes to the polls on April 19 – the first phase of the upcoming election.

While 12 candidates are in the fray from the seat, the main contest is expected to be between the BJP and the Congress. Both parties fielded candidates who have been two-time MPs from the constituency.

BJP’s candidate is sitting MP Jitendra Singh, a Union minister, who was elected from the constituency in 2014 and 2019. His rival, the Congress’s Choudhary Lal Singh, was an MP from there in both 2004 and 2009.