Putting speculations about the abrogation of article 35 A to rest, J&K unit of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Monday said that its primary agenda in the Core Group Meeting scheduled to be held in Delhi on Tuesday will be to pitch hard for the delimitation of the assembly seats and to finalise a plan for upcoming Assembly polls in the State.
BJP General Secretary (organization) Ashok Koul said, “As far as the Article 35-A is concerned, we don’t have this thing on our agenda as of now. We are going to attend the meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday to demand delimitation of Assembly seats in J&K as the existing structure is a major injustice with the people of entire State, especially Jammu and Ladakh.”
“The party leaders will pitch for immediate delimitation of Assembly seats in the State. We will also discuss the party’s preparedness and plans to be adopted for the Assembly elections in the State. This is what we have to discuss the Core group and nothing else will be discussed there,” he said.
The Core Group Meet in Delhi assumes significance as it is taking place at a time when rumour mill is rife in the region that BJP led government at the Centre is seriously planning to scrap Article 35 A, that provides special citizenship rights to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and bars non-local residents from buying the land or any other property in the State.
Asked whether the party was prepared for the elections, Koul said the BJP was very much ready to face the polls and party will achieve its target as seen in the recently concluded Parliamentary elections. The BJP swept polls in Jammu region by bagging both the seats and also lone seat of Ladakh region. In Kashmir all three seats were pocketed by the National Conference.
What added more to the rumour mills is the deployment of additional 10,000 forces in Kashmir on the directions of Ministry of Home Affairs and the advisory issued by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) to its men asking them to store ration and to park the vehicles of employees safely in the wake of inputs of possibility of deteriorating law and order scenario in Kashmir.
However, the police top brass refuted the order of RPF saying it carries no weight and people should not pay heed to such orders.
