BJP trying to strengthen its hold in Kashmir

Buoyed by the victory in the Block Development Councils elections in the terror affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has started working to strengthen its position in the Valley too. In order to do so, the party leaders are meeting people residing in the distant places of the Valley.

The party won in all the eight blocks of Shopian district of South Kashmir. Independent candidates won the majority of blocks in the recent BDC elections.

The party feels that after the implementation of various Central government schemes and sending money directly into the accounts of the Panchayats, the perspective of the people of Kashmir towards the party is changing. The BJP said that the victory in Shopian district and the heavy voter turnout is the victory of ballot over bullet.

"What is more important than the results in the first BDC elections in J&K is the 98 per cent voter turnout. The people of Kashmir showed their confidence in democracy," the Assembly elections in-charge of J&K and BJP's National Vice President Avinash Rai Khanna told .

He said "The party workers met the people in the Panchayats. They told them that till now they had to appease the Chief Ministers, Ministers for the budget allocation for the Panchayats but now the Modi government is sending the money for the development directly into the accounts of Panchayats. This made them realise the benefits of abrogation of Article 370."

Responding to questions on the victory of a large number of Independent candidates, Rai said that most of them want to join the BJP and some of them were in touch earlier also.

Out of the nine blocks in Shopian district, BDC elections were held in eight. The BJP won in all the blocks. Apart from this, the party also won one seat in Baramulla, two in Budgam, three in Anantnag and four in Pulwama. All these districts are terror affected. The party believes that the BDC election results depict the strengthening position of the party in the Valley.

The BJP fielded 60 candidates in Kashmir out of which 18 won. The polling percentage in Kashmir was recorded at 93.65 per cent whereas in Jammu it was 99.4 per cent and 100 per cent in Srinagar.

BDC elections in 307 blocks out of 316 were held in J&K on October 24. Out of the 148 blocks in Jammu, the BJP won 52 whereas out of the 128 in Kashmir it won 18 and in the 31 blocks in Ladakh it won in 11 blocks.

( With inputs from IANS )