Senior BJP Ministers and party MlA’s representing Jammu region have started feeling the heat of ongoing agitation over setting up of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jammu region.
With each passing day State BJP leaders are growing nervous and have already started the blame game and name calling for giving birth to a controversy which has resulted in eroding BJP’s sizable support base across Jammu region in a span of just five months after becoming part of the alliance Government with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The BJP rode to power after recording a historic victory in the 2014 Assembly polls and winning 25 Assembly seats.
Two prominent faces of the BJP who remained in the forefront and addressed a series of Press conferences assuring people of Jammu region that AIIMS would be set up in Jammu first than any other place in the State have also been missing in action for a long time.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh who led the delegation of BJP leaders to meet Union Health Minister JP Nadda is yet to make a public appearance in Jammu to explain his party’s position and take credit for delivering on the assurances.
On the other hand BJP MP from Doda-Udhampur lok Sabha seat and MOS PMO Jitendra Singh is another senior party leader who is deliberately staying away from Jammu as many in the State unit blame him for giving birth to a controversy over separate AIIMS for Jammu region.
After Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had made an announcement of setting up of AIIMS in J&K in the lok Sabha during his Budget speech, Singh had issued a statement thanking him for announcing AIIMS for Jammu.
Former Union Minister and President National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, however, stole the show by walking up to the stage of AIIMS coordination committee near Tawi bridge and batted for the idea of setting up two separate AIIMS for Jammu and Kashmir regions in the State.
Chanting slogans of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ Dr Abdullah, accompanied by party MlA DS Rana and other senior party leaders in his brief address to the activists of AIIMS coordination committee also proposed to lead an all party’s delegation to New Delhi to apprise the Parliamentarians about the urgent need to set up separate AIIMS in the two distinct regions of the State.