Three leaders have resigned from the saffron party, protesting over the party’s choice of candidates.
Amid no let-up in anger over ticket distribution in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two more leaders parted ways with it on Saturday. BJP’s Samba president Kashmira Singh resigned from all posts, including party’s primary membership.
Opposing the candidature of former J&K minister Surjit Singh Slathia, who switched over from Farooq Abdullah-led National Conference to the BJP, Singh said he was compelled by the circumstances after the party gave ticket to a person, who had come from the National Conference (NC) and “vociferously opposed our ideology for decades”.
Slathia, who served as a minister in the Congress-NC coalition government headed by Omar Abdullah, joined the BJP in 2021. Kashmira Singh said, “We strengthened the BJP in Samba and made numerous sacrifices to carry forward the ideology of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mukherjee and the BJP. We held demonstrations and organised strikes for the revocation of Article 370 and the ticket was given to the one who was always against our ideology and the revocation of Article 370. This is not justice with ordinary workers”
In his resignation letter to J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina, Singh said he will withdraw his resignation if the party replaces Slathia with a senior BJP member.
“Otherwise, I am going to take forward this struggle and file my nomination papers as an independent candidate against him,” he added.
Another BJP leader, Kanav Sharma, also resigned in protest against the party mandate to Yudhvir Sethi from Jammu East assembly constituency. Sharma, an advocate by profession and Jammu district chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), said, “Sethi is well known for his corrupt practices when his wife Priya Sethi was education minister…”
Kanav is the son of Chander Mohan Sharma, who had an association with the party for the past over five decades, had resigned and threatened to contest as an independent from Jammu East constituency.
“I am third generation in my family, which had been associated with the Sangathan. I worked on various positions before being made BJYM Jammu district president. Unfair ticket distribution left us disappointed and compelled us to take the call,” he said.
Thus, three BJP leaders have so far left the saffron camp, protesting against the party high command’s mandate to parachuted leaders from other parties like National Conference, Congress and Peoples Democratic Party.
For Vaishno Devi Assembly constituency, the party had to placate Rohit Dubey and his supporters. The party had initially announced Dubey’s candidature but later fielded former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma.
Dubey’s replacement had created furore among his supporters and the top leadership, including Union ministers G Kishan Reddy, Dr Jitendra Singh and BJP’s J&K chief Ravinder Raina, had to forge camaraderie between the two.
The assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the first in 10 years, will be held on September 18, 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will take place on October 4. Source
