Early Times Newspaper Jammu
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Clueless BJP says 'it never compromised on core issues'
LS, Assembly polls
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Jan 17: Lok Sabha elections are round the corner. The whole process would be completed before May and the new government would be in place on May 26. J&K is the only state where the assembly elections could also take place along with the general elections. J&K has been under the President's Rule since November 21, 2018.
There are parties in the state which want the assembly elections in the state before May. These include the NC, the Congress and the Panthers Party. The two parties which are neither here nor there are the BJP and the PDP. They are not opposing the idea of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. At the same time, they are also not showing any eagerness.
Both the PDP and the BJP are on the defensive and under attack. In Kashmir, the NC has upped its ante against the PDP. In Jammu, the BJP is being targeted by the Congress. Both the NC and the Congress are tearing into the PDP and the BJP. They are accusing the PDP and the BJP of destroying the state, alienating the people and disturbing the state's political equilibrium.
The PDP has felt the pulse of the people of Kashmir and its chief Mehbooba Mufti is leaving no stone unturned to arouse popular passions in the Valley and befriend Pakistan, Hurriyat, terrorists of all varieties, stone-pelters and all those who matter in Kashmir. She is openly siding with seditionists hoping that such a line would help her retrieve the lost space in the Valley. She knows that her arch-political rival in Kashmir is the NC, which is also putting in all efforts to muddying the Indian waters in Kashmir for votes and power.
It's the BJP, which is finding itself in deep trouble. It's confused, clueless and rudderless. It doesn't know what to say and what not to say. People of Jammu and Ladakh, nay people across the nations, do not trust the BJP anymore as its alliance with the PDP in J&K has exposed its ideological bankruptcy and left no one in any doubt that it is no different from the Congress and that it could go to any extent to fulfil its lust for power.
It's true that the BJP in the state and at the national level is trying its best to convince its core voters that it is committed to the core issues and it never compromised on them, but with no result. The people know that the BJP stitched pro-poll alliance with the PDP, known across the world for its divisive and communal politics and for its soft attitude towards Pakistan, terrorists, stone-pelters and other undesirable elements. But more than that, its own core voters are accusing the party leadership of betraying the people and subverting the 2014 mandate in the state and at the centre. Their main grouse against the party's top leadership and the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre is that they have not done anything to introduce UCC, build Ram Temple and abrogate Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
The BJP will have to work hard to conciliate its alienated core voters and reports from Ladakh and the party's headquarters in Jammu clearly suggest that things for the in the state in general and Jammu and Ladakh in particular are not very promising.