 Early Times Report
Jammu, June 13: In the first post-Lok Sabha elections meeting, BJP leadership admitted that the performance of the party in many assembly constituencies was not up to the mark as Congress candidates secured unexpected votes in Hindu majority segments.
Highly placed sources said that some leaders cautioned that the performance of the party in some Hindu majority assembly segments was a warning signal for the party, especially in the coming Assembly polls.
Today BJP conducted a meeting of its assembly constituency Prabharis and convenors, district presidents, district Prabharis, and Seh-Prabharis at party headquarters, Trikuta Nagar, Jammu to review the performance of the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
Sources said that during the meeting issue of the party’s performance in the Jammu region was discussed. Some leaders sought to draw attention to the party’s poor performance in many seats which were considered as citadels of the party.
As reported by this newspaper, first time since 2009 Congress has taken the lead in three Hindu majority assembly segments of the Jammu region, and these segments are considered strongholds of the BJP.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha and Parliament elections, Congress candidates failed to get the lead on any Hindu-majority assembly segments of Jammu and Kashmir. The same was the situation in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Congress candidate Raman Bhalla took the lead in RS Pura- In the first post-Lok Sabha elections meeting, BJP leadership admitted that the performance of the party in many assembly constituencies was not up to the mark.
Some leaders cautioned that the performance of the party in some Hindu majority assembly segments was a warning signal for the party, especially in the coming Assembly polls.
Some leaders sought to draw attention to the party’s poor performance in many seats which were considered as citadels of the party.
First time since 2009 Congress has taken the lead in three Hindu majority assembly segments of the Jammu region, and these segments are considered strongholds of the BJP.
On R S Pura-Jammu-South, which was earlier part of the Gandhi Nagar assembly segment, Bhalla got 44162 votes while Jugal Kishore Sharma secured 37798 votes.
Similarly, Bhalla secured 42248 votes in the Suchetgarh assembly segment while Sharma got 37442 votes.
Not only in rural constituencies, Raman Bhalla secured almost equal votes in the newly carved urban constituency of Bahu comprising post localities of Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta Nagar, Channi Himmat, etc. Jugal Kishore Sharma secured 37702 votes in this assembly segment and Raman Bhalla got 36156.
The contest was also tough in the Ramgarh (reserved) constituency where Jugal Kishore Sharma got 32557 votes while Bhalla secured 30929.
In the Samba assembly segment, another stronghold of the BJP, Jugal Kishore’s lead reduced to 15,114 from 39,421 in 2019.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Jugal Kishore Sharma had secured 50538 votes and Raman Bhalla 11117. This time Sharma’s vote came down to 39670 while Bhalla’s vote increased to 24566.
The biggest embarrassment for the BJP is the Nowshera assembly segment where the party-supported Apni Party candidate Zafar Iqbal Manhas secured fewer votes than National Conference candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad.
BJP-supported candidate Zafar Iqbal Manhas got 24,352 votes while as NC candidate secured 27388 votes. Nowshera assembly segment is the home constituency of BJP president Ravinder Raina. | 