BJP set to woo Muslims in Jammu

BJP Spokesman,Ramesh Arora,said “the agitation over transfer of land saw people from all the religious communities including the Muslims joining it.”

Presence of BJP’s candidates,former Convenor of Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti (SASS),Leela Karan Sharma,and former state president,Nirmal Singh,on Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary seats respectively,will however divide the Hindu votes in both the parliamentary constituencies of Jammu and Udhampur,with even the committed voters of Congress and NC expected to vote for BJP.

However BJP says that there was nothing religious in the Amarnath agitation and in its campaigns in the Muslim areas the party will also seek the strengthening of the village defence committees as most of the areas have been militancy hit. “We have activated the party units in both the parliamentary seats of Jammu and Udhampur and at the district level as well the units have been activated. We have framed a schedule of rallies in the Muslim areas of the state,” said the BJP spokesman.

“Even in the Muslim areas the booth level units are being constituted. Our each booth will be represented by 10 activists and we have asked the workers to apprise the people about the policies and programmes of the BJP. We have constituted 65 per cent of our booth level units and the rest of the units will also be constituted” said BJP spokesman.

He also added that for the BJP apart from the issues like the strengthening of the village defence committees (VDCs) in the militancy hit areas,other issues which will be its poll plank will be giving the ownership rights to the refugees on the custodian properties which have been occupied by them.

BJP is trying to concentrate on the Muslim areas following the campaigns by the coalition partners Congress and NC in the Muslim dominated areas of Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies.

Congress organised a massive rally on Tuesday in Sunderbani area of Rajouri which was addressed among others by senior party leaders including the party’s General Secretary and Jammu and Kashmir in-charge Prithvi Raj Chavan and former Chief Minister,Ghulam Nabi Azad.