Amit Shah, JP Nadda meet J&K BJP leaders, discuss Assembly poll preparedness

Arjun Sharma

Jammu, July 5

The top brass of the BJP is learnt to have asked its UT leaders to focus on Jammu region, considered to be the party’s stronghold, ahead of the upcoming Assembly poll. The elections are expected to be held in J&K this year as the Supreme Court has directed the EC to conduct them by September 30.

Enhance outreach: Apni Party chief

• A day after the BJP top brass asked its J&K leaders to prepare for the Assembly poll, the Apni Party, termed as a “proxy” of the saffron party, also reviewed preparation for the elections
• Party chief Altaf Bukhari directed leaders to speed up the public outreach programmes

Senior J&K BJP leaders, including UT chief Ravinder Raina, general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul, MP and Union Minister Jitendra Singh and MP Jugal Kishore Sharma, met the party high command in Delhi on Thursday evening to discuss the prevailing political situation.

Union Ministers Amit Shah and JP Nadda chaired the meeting, which was also attended by BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh, Union Minister and J&K election in-charge G Kishan Reddy, national general secretary J&K in-charge Tarun Chug and co-in-charge Ashish Sood. During the meeting, the UT leadership was asked to focus on the areas where the saffron party has a stronghold. The party did not do well even on some of these areas in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.

During the recently held LS elections on the two seats of Jammu division, the BJP led in 29 of total 43 Assembly segments. The Congress and NC were able to secure leads in seven segments each.

“The party high command asked the local leaders to focus on those areas which are considered to be the strongholds of the BJP. These include the Hindu-dominated districts of Jammu region. Party leaders were also asked to focus on Rajouri, Poonch, Doda and Kishtwar, where the BJP did not perform well in the LS poll,” a leader who participated in the meeting said.

While the BJP was able to win the two Jammu seats, the winning margin had dipped drastically from 2019. Local leaders were also told at the meeting that while in Jammu, the BJP would contest most of the seats, in Kashmir, many “associated parties” would contest in alliance with the BJP.