Former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and cabinet minister in previous government, Chaudhary Lal Singh, is all set to launch his own political outfit to fight Lok Sabha and Assembly elections from Jammu province.
Singh was forced to resign from cabinet in April last year following nation wide outrage over his participation in the Hindu Ekta Manch rally organized in support of the accused in the Kathua rape and murder case.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Lal Singh said, “My Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan (which was firstly formed as an apolitical outfit in July 2018) will contest upcoming state and parliamentary elections in all seats in Jammu province.”
He insisted that Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan (DSS) was a non-political outfit but situation compelled him to take a call “for betterment of Jammu.”
“The DSS was constituted mainly to press for the demand of CBI inquiry into Rassana case and highlighting issue of Jammu province. Initially we were non-political. We didn’t contest the municipal corporation election but they (administration) have no interest in conducting a CBI inquiry or solving people’s issues, which compelled us to lead from the front and enter into political arena,” Lal Singh said.
Singh claimed that his outfit participated in Panchayat elections and ended up winning over 250 Sarpanch and Panch seats.
When asked about possible alliances, Singh said, “When we win, then we will decide whom to ally with. We have a charter of 21 demands; whoever helps us implement them we will ally with them, otherwise option of sitting on opposition benches is not a bad choice.”
Sources close to Singh claimed that process to register his political outfit with the Election Commission of India has been already initiated.
They added that Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan is likely to be renamed as Dogra Swabhiman Party (DSP) and party’s symbol would be a lion and a sheep drinking water from the same pond, which portraits a symbol of harmony and brotherhood in Jammu. Talking to Greater Kashmir, BJP state president Ravinder Raina claimed that Lal Singh was still a member of BJP.
“As far as BJP is concerned he continues to be our member,” Raina said and claimed that he is unaware about Singh’s decision of registering new political party.
However, on his absence from yesterday’s Narendra Modi rally in Vijaypur and other party activities from past few months, Rain claimed that he called him personally to invite him in the rally but Singh’s “health was not good.”