Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Ram Madhav Thursday arrived in Kashmir and held a meeting with Sajjad Lone and Imran Ansari.
On his arrival, Madhav, who was the BJP’s point man for Kashmir and has played a key role in building the BJP-PDP alliance government in the state after 2014 elections, drove straight to Hari Nawas.
After an hour’s stay there, Madhav went to Taj Vivanta hotel where he held more than an hour-long, closed-door meeting with Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Lone and rebel Peoples Democratic Party leader Imran Raza Ansari.
A source said that Madhav also met Lone separately.
Lone was a minister in PDP-BJP coalition government from saffron party’s quota. He had aligned with the BJP ahead of 2014 Assembly elections in the state and his Peoples Conference had won two seats. Madhav will be flying back to New Delhi on Friday morning.
The senior BJP leader also participated in celebrations organised for PC-backed Junaid Mattu’s election as mayor of Srinagar. PDP rebels Imran Raza Ansari and Yasir Reshi also attended the celebrations.
On Mattu’s victory, Madhav had tweeted: “Junaid Mattoo, independent supported by Sajjad Lone’s People’s Conference and BJP has won the mayor post of Srinagar. He polled against d combined candidate of PDP, NC and Congress by 40 votes to 26 votes. Congrats Junaid and Sajjad n all Corporators.”
During the celebrations, Madhav also met successful councilors of BJP and other candidates who voted Mattu to Srinagar mayorship.