BJP would contest the Jammu & Kashmir elections on the poll plank of development with the issue of “misrule” of twin families of Abdullahs of National Conference and Muftis of PDP to also figure during BJP’s poll campaign.
As in the case of Haryana and Maharashtra, where the BJP emerged as the single largest party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lead the campaign attack in the J&K as also in Jharkhand, which too goes to poll simultaneously.
“We will go to people in the name of development and getting the State rid of these two families. Their ‘family raj’ stands for corruption and deprivation,” said party General Secretary Ram Madhav. He refused to comment when asked whether revocation of Article 370 will figure prominently in the party’s electioneering in the State. Madhav said the manifesto for the State election will make things clear.
The State unit of the BJP is all set to release the manifesto on November 15. A senior State party leader privy to the close door deliberations of the manifesto draft committee maintained, “In its manifesto, BJP has proposed to hold intense debate over Article 370 to find out whether it has benefited or harmed the interests of the people of the State”.
According to the leader, “Abrogation of Article 370 is part of the national agenda of the party. The State unit too echoes the same sentiments. We cannot think of sidelining the core issue of the party at a time when the party machinery is aiming to form first-ever Government in the State on its own strength”.
In 2008, the BJP manifesto had projected the demand for gaining political power for Jammu region before the electorate.
Interestingly, the issue of abrogation of Article 370 was weighed down in the party manifesto even though the party leaders had maintained that it was part and parcel of their partys’ national agenda.
“The BJP has already rejected outright and exposed the politics of Article 370, Autonomy, Self Rule, demilitarisation, porous and irrelevant borders, appeasement and emotional blackmail and registered its emphatic opposition to any move that is calculated to weaken the Indian sovereignty and authority in Kashmir”, the party manifesto had stated.
Meanwhile, a couple of State leaders, including the son of a prominent Congressman, are expected to join the BJP on Sunday, according to sources.