After winning the Urban Local Bodies (ULB) election whose results were quite good, the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir said on Sunday that it is hopeful to win over 50 assembly seats in the next elections and form a government on its own in the state.
The BJP won 53 of the 132 wards in militancy-infested districts. Looking at the victory of municipal polls, BJP state president Ravinder Raina said on Sunday that the party is hopeful of achieving no less than 50 seats in the next assembly elections that will help it to form its own government in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, the BJP, failed to open its account in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region. According to PTI report, out of the total 26 wards in this region, the Congress bagged all the 13 seats in Leh municipal committee. It also won five wards in neighbouring Kargil district. The BJP said, “We did not have the results as per our expectations there”.
In the aftermath of the lossBJP is all geared to tackle this issue and a two-member team of senior leaders is said to be visiting Ladakh on Monday to look into the reasons for the poor performance of the party in the region and take appropriate steps for “course correction” to win the electorate of the region, informed Raina.
This victory is significant for BJP as the party was not even able to get a worker to lift the party flag sometime back. Raina further said, “We have full faith the party will sweep the upcoming parliamentary elections. In the last assembly elections, our mission was 44 plus seats but next time when the assembly elections will be held, we will achieve our mission of 50 plus seats (out of a total of 87 seats up for grabs) and will form the government on our own and the chief minister will be from our party”. On being asked whether the chief minister will be from Jammu or Kashmir in case the BJP achieves its target, Raina said he will be from the BJP and “the one you would like to have”.
He also applauded the security forces for back-to-back counter terrorist attacks and said just like prime minister’s slogan of “Congress-free India,” the mission of “terrorism-free Jammu and Kashmir” would be achieved too which will bring peace, prosperity and development in the state.
On taking a dig at the boycott of NC and PDP from the municipal elections he said the people of Kashmir have “shown mirror” to the terrorists and separatists and the mainstream parties which boycotted the elections.
“They will repeat their faith in the democratic exercise during the panchayat elections (scheduled to be held in nine phases in November-December). Though the panchayat elections are being held on non-party basis, it is meant for strengthening grass-root level institutions to empower people,” he said.
Raina said the result of ULB elections shows the victory of democracy and the nation. “Those who wanted to sabotage the polls miserably failed in their nefarious design and people chose democracy, peace and development and their vote was for Prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision of new India”, he said.