Jammu, May 09: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command has directed the party leaders and all office bearers of Jammu & Kashmir to reach out to the people in the valley in all possible ways and means and convince them to vote against National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress.
“The directions have been given by the BJP high command to mobilise and convince people of all the three Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir to vote against NC, PDP and Congress,” a senior leader of the BJP, wishing not to be named, said.
NC, PDP and Congress are part of the INDIA alliance but both NC and PDP have been fighting against each other in all the 3 Lok Sabha seats of Kashmir.
This official direction of the BJP high command is a clear indication of the BJP’s support to either Jammu Kashmir Apni Party of Altaf Bukhari, Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) of Ghulam Nabi Azad and People’s Conference (PC) of Sajjad Lone in whichever seats the candidates of these parties would be contesting against NC, PDP and Congress.
The NC and PDP have fielded their candidates for the Rajouri-Poonch-Anantnag, Srinagar and Baramulla Lok Sabha seats.
The Rajouri-Poonch-Anantnag seat was formed after delimitation. Earlier, Rajouri and Poonch were part of the erstwhile Jammu-Poonch Lok Sabha seat. The BJP won the erstwhile Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and senior NC leader Mian Altaf have filed their nominations from the Rajouri-Poonch-Anantnag seat.