National Conference (NC) provincial president and former MLA, Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday asked people of Jammu not to fall prey to “false” election promises of BharatiyaJanata Party.
Hitting out at BJP’s state chief Ravinder Raina for hisassertion that his party would get over 50 seats in the forthcoming Assemblyelections and new Chief Minister would be from Jammu, Rana said, “BJP has ahistory of fooling people using such emotional statements during elections.”
“In 2014 state Assembly elections, the BJP promised peoplethat if the party was voted to power, it would elect a Hindu CM. On thispromise, the party got decisive mandate from Jammu region but when the partyleaders had to negotiate government formation with late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed,they couldn’t even convince the late PDP leader for a rotational CM.”
“I want to ask the J&K BJP leaders-why they failed toelect a Hindu CM? And if not Hindu CM, why they even failed to convince MuftiSayeed for a rotational CM?” asked Rana.
Without naming anyone, he sought to know why J&K BJPprojected a person with 2 MLAs as their CM nominee after it (BJP) pulled outsupport from Mehbooba Mufti-led government. “You must have projected your ownparty leader as CM nominee then. You cannot fool all the people all the times,”he said.
He suggested the State BJP leaders should stop daydreamingabout getting 50 seats in the Assembly elections. “People of Jammu are mature enough now tounderstand the party’s cheating tactics,” he added.
Rana claimed that in the forthcoming Assembly elections, BJPwon’t even get 25 seats as the party has not done justice with the Jammuregion.
He assured that if his party, NC is voted to power, it willdo justice with all the three regions of the state particularly Jammu. “We willestablish regional councils, one each at Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh so thatevery region gets equal share of development and people stop thinking aboutdiscrimination with any of the three regions,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rana said that J&K BJP leaders have tounderstand that their candidates won in the recently concluded generalelections only because of NarendraModi. “Most J&K BJP leaders have beensuffering from this hallucination that they won on their own but it is a provenfact that they won just because people wanted to elect NarendraModi as their PMagain,” Rana said.
He dared State BJP leaders to just list 10 majordevelopmental works executed in their three years of rule. “I am ready todebate with you (BJP leaders) on any platform. Just list me 10 major works thatyour government brought in for Jammu or that gave impetus to developmentalactivities in Jammu. I can challenge you have nothing to count,” saidRana.
He also mocked state BJP chief for telling a news channelthat Article 370 of the Constitution is illegal. “The BJP leaders of the Statedon’t even know the Constitutional position of the Article 370. Let me tellthem that a law that emanates out of Constitution cannot be illegal. However,it is entirely a different issue that BJP has been promising for the over past60 years that it will repeal Article 370, but at least, they should have thismuch knowledge that an Article that is part of Constitution cannot be illegal.”
Asked when the Assembly elections would be held in theState, Rana said, “Except two to three people, nobody knows answer to thisquestion. When ECI team arrived in J&K, our party batted for simultaneouspolls. Our party leaders have been continuously seeking early polls in theState but it is painful to say that even the ECI is not answering this questionas to when it will hold polls.”
On how he sees NC as an alternative when Congress and PDPhave performed poorly in the recently held LokSabha polls, Rana said, “I feelthat NC will repeat its performance of 1996 as there is no other alternativefor the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Our party has emerged as the only forcepeople want to go with in the LA elections.”
On whether NC will form a coalition government with BJP, theNC leader said that J&K BJP has been using back channels to float thisrumour that NC want to ally with it. “And the BJP leaders are doing thisbecause they know this fact that NC will emerge as the biggest political partyin the state after the Assembly elections. But let me make it very clear thatwe will form a government on our own,” Rana added.