Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 14: Convinced that the people of Leh district of Ladakh region were not very happy with the BJP and its performance during the past 7 months and 15 days, the BJP leaders from Jammu and Punjab, including Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and J&K BJP Prabhari and BJP national Vice-President Avinash Rai Khanna, have started fooling, misleading and hoodwinking them by taking recourse to a strategy they used in the 2014 Assembly elections in Jammu province. On Tuesday, they addressed a rally at Khalsi and held out a commitment that the BJP, if voted to power in Leh, will end injustice with the people of the region like the BJP did in Jammu.
The people of Leh district are politically very matured. They know everything and they are also fully aware of the BJP's rabidly anti-Jammu and out-and-out pro-Kashmir policies. They know that the BJP came into power in the State only after surrendering everything to Kashmir. They know that the BJP, which had, like its coalition partner, 28 MLAs excluded the people of Jammu province from the all-powerful Cabinet, handed over all the vital portfolios to its coalition partner, became a party to the anti-Hindu decision on imposition of 12.5 per cent Jazya tax on Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrimage, Shri Amarnath pilgrimage and similar other pilgrimages and became a party to the decision on dismissal of two law officers over the beef issue that hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
The people of Ladakh also know that the BJP has abandoned the refugees from Pakistan, refugees from PoJK, refugees from Kashmir and border migrants of 1965 and 1971. They also know that the BJP left in the lurch socially and economically backward social groups like the SCs, the STs and the OBCs and that the BJP also ditched the daughters of the State. But more than that, they also know that the BJP has lost its independence and become a B-team of Kashmir-based political parties, that it has compromised its ideology and age-old stand on J&K and that it has done U-turn after U-turn during the past seven months and a half to cheat its own constituency in Jammu province.
There are reasons to believe that the people of Ladakh will reject the BJP like they did in 2010. In 2010, the BJP could win only 4 in the 30-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh, and the Congress had won 21. Tomorrow will be the last day for campaigning. Elections would take place on October 17 and results would be declared on October 23. If all goes well, the fifth Council would be in place in the first week of November.
It is important to note that the Congress, which won the Council elections in Leh thrice hands down, has been leaving no stone unturned to repeat its 2010 performance, notwithstanding the fact that the contest this time for the Congress is somewhat tough for obvious reasons. Its problem is not the BJP or the PDP or the NC. Its problem is the newly formed New Ladakh Party (NLP), which had fielded more than a dozen candidates. The Congress would be able to recapture the Council provided it is able to neutralize the impact of the campaign unleashed by the NLP. |
