Amid infighting in Jammu unit, BJP chief dials miffed leaders

New Delhi/Jammu, August 29

BJP chief JP Nadda is learnt to have spoken to some of the senior leaders in the party’s J&K unit who are said to be upset over not getting ticket for the Assembly elections.

He reportedly called up former deputy CMs Nirmal Singh and Kavinder Gupta, and UT chief Ravinder Raina. The party had not named any of these leaders in the candidate list announced so far.

Earlier in the day, other senior party leaders also tried reconciliation between former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma and Reasi district chief Rohit Dubey. Katra’s Dubey was replaced with Sharma for the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Assembly constituency in Reasi district in a revised list of party candidates on Tuesday.

The deletion of Dubey’s name had allegedly angered the party workers of Katra, who had threatened that to resign en-masse if Dubey was not reconsidered for the ticket. It has been learnt that the situation has not yet returned to normal and Dubey has sought time from the party leadership to announce his decision.

To strike peace between Dubey and Sharma, top leaders including Minister Jitendra Singh, national general secretary of the party Tarun Chugh, MP Jugal Kishore Sharma among other leaders gathered at the party office late on Wednesday where the two leaders from Katra were also present.

Sources said, BJP J&K poll in-charge Ram Madhav had also met with leaders in Jammu to ease tensions and bring cadres together. The BJP has been facing the ire of workers over selection of candidates.

The party had won 25 Assembly seats in the 2014 polls in J&K. This was the second highest after the Peoples Democratic Party. Jammu region has been the BJP’s core strength in the UT, but this time it is battling cadre anxiety over poll nominations.