A day after results of the recently held civic polls were declared, the Bharatiya Janata Party state president said Sunday the “landslide victory” for the saffron party “paved the way” for its mission 44+ that remained unaccomplished during the last assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Ravinder Raina said the most encouraging aspect of the Urban Local Bodies’ polls was the BJP’s maiden victory in Kashmir valley.
“The ULB results as a whole have paved way for the BJP to accomplish our mission of 44+ which could not be fulfilled in 2014,” Raina told reporters during a press conference at the party headquarters in Trikkuta Nagar here.
“Sometime back, it was very difficult to find someone to hold BJP’s flag in Kashmir, but today 106 candidates of the BJP have registered victory in different wards of the valley which is very encouraging for the party.”
The BJP state president said the ULB election results indicated that after Jammu and Ladakh, people of Kashmir have also accepted BJP’s programmes and policies.
Based on the results, Raina forecast that the next chief minister of the state will be from his party.
He claimed 3.5 lakh people from Kashmir valley associated themselves with the Hindu nationalist saffron party during a membership drive and boasted the BJP got over 50,000 votes in the Kashmir Valley in the 2014 state elections.
The BJP state leader also said his party has also emerged as a “king maker” in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and was in a position to decide who the next Mayor of the city would be.
“We will have our Mayor in Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and the Mayor of SMC must also have our (BJP) consent,” Raina said, adding many victorious independent candidates in Kashmir were also supported by the BJP.
“We will form eight Municipal Committees (MC) in Kashmir and 25 in Jammu province, and we are also a kingmaker for SMC Mayor.”
Raina thanked the people for reposing faith in the party and voting for its candidates, saying the Separatists and those who boycotted the ULB polls and tried to sabotage the democratic process have been given “befitting reply by the people”.
The BJP state president also claimed that at least eight independents who emerged victorious in JMC elections were BJP rebels.
“They all came to party office yesterday. We welcome them. This virtually means that we have over 50 members in the 75 member JMC.” Raina said
The BJP won 43 wards of the JMC.