 Abodh Sharma
JAMMU, Aug 18: Facing an uncertain political future after he was shown the door by the Congress, Former Member Parliament, Lal Singh has innumerable reasons to embrace BJP, but why does BJP need him, is an enigma in itself.
Lal Singh who is scheduled to join BJP in the presence of Party's national president Amit Shah during latter's visit to Kathua on August 25 has already racked up several issues within the state BJP, forcing it to withhold the list of candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections even as other parties have announced multiple lists.
Sources reveal that Singh who is joining the party along with his supporters including his wife and brother has been seeking mandate for the other members of his family as well, creating lot of uncertainty and confusion within the district and the state units of the party, who are opposed to granting party mandate even to Lal Singh.
"Lal Singh has abused the BJP, RSS and its ideology openly for years; how can he not only embraced into the party fold, but granted party mandate at his very induction?" questioned a senior party functionary, adding, "It shall affect the morale of the party rank and file and the cadre who have worked selflessly for propagating this ideology for decades."
Lal Singh is not the only one who has recently joined BJP and is aspirant of party mandate for the Assembly elections; Advocate Sunil Sethi, former IGP Farooq Khan and daughter of Kashmiri Separatist leader Heena Khan are the other names, who have been seeking party mandate at their very induction while there are many other prominent names who have worked for years in the party hierarchy, but have never even been considered for the mandate.
Apart from the issue of mandate, party cadre is accusing that Lal Singh has decided to board BJP ship just to keep himself afloat and he can never align with the ideology of the BJP after being bitterly opposing to it for decades. "There cannot be a change of heart so abruptly. He just wants to prove to the Congress that if they have discarded him, he still has takers and secondly, he wants to be politically relevant for his very survival," said an office bearer of Kathua unit of the BJP pleading anonymity. "With several cases of illegal encroachment of state and private land being actively pursued against him, he needs to desperately hang on to a political identity," he added. "The manner in which he changed colour like a chameleon and turned foe to Azad whom he followed for years after party decided to give mandate to the latter in his place from Kathua-Udhampur -Doda constituency in the last Parliamentary elections has raised serious question mark on his very loyalty," he further added. |
