The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Saturday claimed that the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions want immediate removal of Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution by voting for the party.
It also said the National Conference’s claim that it willform the government on its own in the state after the assembly elections is”hollow”.
The BJP retained Udhampur, Jammu and Ladakh parliamentaryseats, while the NC swept the polls by winning all the three seats — Srinagar,Baramulla and Anantnag — in the Valley.
On Friday, NC president Farooq Abdullah had said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi cannot remove Article 35A and Article 370 despite hugemajority.
“Let him be as powerful as he (Modi) likes, he cannotremove Article 370 and Article 35-A,” Abdullah had said, adding “ourright of Article 370 and Article 35A should be protected. This is veryimportant for us. We are soldiers of this country, not enemies”.
Article 370 grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir andlimits Parliament’s power to make laws concerning the state. Article 35Aempowers the state assembly to define “permanent residents” forbestowing special rights and privileges on them.
BJP state spokesperson Brig (Retd) Anil Gupta said,”Abdullah and the NC leadership does not have the mandate of the people ofJammu and Ladakh to make tall claims about Articles 35A and 370 because thepeople of these two regions want immediate removal of these articles as isevident from the mandate given in favour of their removal.”
He said the assembly constituency wise analysis of pollingpattern in the just concluded parliamentary elections established beyond doubtthat the regional party’s claim that it will form the next government in thestate on its own is “hollow”.
“The NC has won in 30 assembly constituencies, all inKashmir, mostly due to low voter turnout. The margin of victory is also verynarrow in many constituencies. It has clean swept the Srinagar parliamentaryconstituency by winning in all 15 assembly constituencies.
“The party has zero representation from both Jammu andLadakh regions. The NC surrendered without contest in both the regions becauseit failed to find suitable candidates. Its ploy of a ‘mahagathbandhan'(alliance) to defeat the BJP in these regions failed miserably going by thehuge margin of victory in favour of us in the three parliamentary seatsallotted to Congress in the garb of unity of self-proclaimed secularparties,” Gupta said.
The BJP leader said the NC leadership needs to explain howit plans to form the government on its own with lead in just 30 assemblyconstituencies.
“The confidence exuded by these leaders is good toraise the sagging morale of its cadre but woefully inadequate to form the nextstate government on its own,” he said.
Gupta said the BJP’s vote share of 46.4 per cent in theseelections is more than the combined vote share of the NC, the Congress and thePDP together.
“The Congress has a vote share of 28.5 per cent,followed by NC 7.9 per cent and PDP 3.3 per cent,” he said.
Gupta also asked Abdullah to clarify as to how he proposesto restore peace in the state when his party wants to repeal the Public SafetyAct, remove the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, demands withdrawal of theArmy, wants ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeM) to be lifted and ‘Operation AllOut’ to be called off.”Can peace be restored without eliminatingthe terror and the over ground terror network? Abdullah needs to clarify?”he asked.