Jammu: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched damage control exercise in Jammu and Kashmir to pacify its party leaders who are reportedly upset over being denied tickets for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
Resentment among some party leaders and workers came to light after the party’s state president Ravinder Raina was forced to cut short his speech by angry workers in Reasi district. The protesting workers were upset over denial of ticket to Rohit Dubey from Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat. Dubey was replaced in the revised list of candidates with former MLA Baldev Raj Sharma.
Ram Madhav meeting sulking leaders in Jammu and Kashmir
The party top brass has deployed Ram Madhav, who is also the BJP’s in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections to meet the sulking state leaders.
Madhav met party senior leader Sat Sharma, former Deputy CM Kavindra Gupta, and others like Omi Khajuria and Rohit Dubey who were upset after their names did not appear in the party’s candidates list. Madhav is also set to meet former Deputy CM Nirmal Singh today.
Unhappy over ticket distribution, BJP workers protest in Jammu
Earlier on Wednesday, party workers protested in Reasi after party’s ticket announcements. Later in the day, Rohit Dubey visited the party headquarters at Trikuta Nagar in Jammu and posed with Sharma and other senior leaders of the party, which the BJP termed as a move to show the “unity and the strength of the organisation”.
Union minister Jitendra Singh, national general secretary and in-charge J&K Tarun Chugh, Raina, member of Parliament Jugal Kishore Sharma, election management committee convener Sarb Singh Naag and other senior BJP leaders were also present on the occasion, the party said in a statement late in the evening.
‘BJP is a disciplined party of ground-level workers’
Chugh said the BJP is a disciplined party of ground-level workers who work together like a family.
The BJP said all the party leaders present on the occasion showed their strength and committed themselves to the party’s victory in the region.
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi seat is going to polls along with 25 other segments in the second phase on September 25.
The first phase of the state elections across 24 seats is scheduled to take place on September 18; the the final and the third phase covering the remaining 40 seats will be held on October 1 followed by counting of votes on October 4.