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| Jhandewallan Hq wants BJP to rethink, Samiti leaders still stay firm on LS panel | | |
ZAFAR CHOUDHARY
Jammu, March 15: Beginning seems so interesting end may not be so strange. The Jhandewallan headquarter is aghast, Congress is enjoying from the fence and the people of Jammu are lost in thoughts as Bhartiya Janta Party ‘splits’ over deciding nominees for the two Lok Sabha seats of the region.
The party is though yet to officially confirm anything but there was a protest demonstration Sunday at Pandit Prem Nath Dogra Bhawan –BJP’s Jammu address –over the media reports on selection of Lok Sabha election candidates. BJP’s state unit says that it was not an ‘officially stages protest’ and the central leadership describes it as a natural fallout which can happen anywhere.
As already reported the BJP had almost decided names of two prominent leaders of the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangharsh Samiti (SAYSS) to contest election on Jammu-Poonch and Kathua-Doda Lok Sabha seats but the decision is not coming through as easy as anyone could have expected. Not only the state unit but also the central leadership of BJP is vertically split on the decision. Looking at the information gathered from sources, it appears, the reason of a strong section of BJP for opposing the decision is loaded fully with a proper logic but they want somebody from the party to go the polls instead of picking up the Samiti leaders who spearheaded two-month long agitation on Amarnath land row.
Sources said that in the central leadership of the BJP, its general secretary, in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir affairs, Arun Jaitly has been left as the only solitary supporter of decision to offer tickets to Leela Karan Sharma and Dr Jatinder Singh to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Party’s top leadership including LK Advani and President Rajnath Singh, sources said, were also initially keen to see this decision through but they have development cold feet following feedback from Jhandewallan –the RSS headquarters in New Delhi which coordinates with BJP on the political affairs.
Sources claimed that the RSS is completely against the idea of BJP offering tickets to the leaders of Sangarsh Samiti for a strong reason which is reported to have gained second thoughts of Advani and Rajnath Singh. The RSS, it is learnt, feels that victory of Sangharsh Samiti leadership in Lok Sabha elections may bring some dividends but their loss can be disastrous for the Sangh Parivar nationwide.
The Amarnath land row agitation, it may be mentioned here, was a historical milestone in Sangh Parivar expansion politics and political thought after the Ayodhya agitation. Jammu had emerged as an epicenter of this kind of politics which helped BJP to fetch as many as eleven seats in 2008 assembly elections –seen by the political observers as last highest point in BJP’s history in Jammu and Kashmir. Since predicting election results is no more a wise-men’s business, the RSS believes that loss of Sangarsh Samiti candidates in Lok Sabha elections can undo the ‘gains’ of summer-2008 agitation.
When contacted over phone in New Delhi late this evening, the BJP sources maintained that names of Leela Karan Sharma and Dr Jatinder Singh is still on table but there is always a scope of second thoughts. “There is nothing new in this, deciding election tickets always takes time and there are always pulls and pressures”, said a senior BJP leader who did not wish to be named.
When asked about resignation of Leela Karan Sharma and decision of Sangharsh Samiti not to participate in the poll campaign, the BJP leaders termed it as politically correct. He said, “the Sangharsh Samiti has always made it clear that it is not political organization and this promise had to be lived upto”. He added, “Samiti’s not complaining will not matter as much as the symbolism of this decision will do”.
While the BJP Parliamentary Board is hung up in New Delhi, the some activists today staged a protest demonstration at the party headquarters against the move to field Sangharsh Samiti leaders in Lok Sabha elections. Sources, however, said that the protest was stage managed by a local MLA. Party’s press secretary Balbir Ram told Early Times that BJP does not own any such protest which may have been managed by some external elements.
When reached over phone in New Delhi, BJP organizing Secretary Manohar Lal said, “nothing much should be read into the reported protest in Jammu. It happens everywhere in country. There are many aspirants for every seat and when ticket is decided for one, others often do such things”. When asked if he was confirming the decision about Sangharsh Samiti leaders, Lal said, “fresh round of discussions is on”
Sources said that the BJP is ‘genuinely’ shot of potential candidates to contest elections on both seats of Jammu division. The others names under consideration were those of Dr Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash Ganga and Anil Gupta, who incidentally happens to be son of BJP veteran and Jammu West MLA Chaman Lal Gupta.
Interestingly, the Congress is monitoring the developments from fence and will announce names of its nominees once BJP clears its list. Unless a miracle, the contest on both seats of Jammu division is all a straight game between BJP and the Congress and both parties are playing extra-cautious in selecting their nominees.
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