Settle local issues to check resentment
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Mar 14: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) high command has firmly ruled out any immediate reshuffle of its 11 Ministers and called upon the sitting Ministers to improve their performance and get the issues of people resolved as resentment was growing against the party in many parts of Jammu region due to local problems. The BJP high command has, however, stated that the PDP-BJP coalition Government will continue to work together notwithstanding the ouster of Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu, who was chief architect of the alliance between the two coalition partners.
The BJP high command including party’s national general secretary Ram Madhav, BJP pointman on Jammu and Kashmir, reportedly conveyed these observations to BJP State president Sat Sharma ‘CA’ and Ashok Koul, general secretary (organizations) when they called on him in New Delhi today. The BJP leaders were scheduled to meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh but he was preoccupied.
Reliable sources told the Excelsior that the BJP high command was in no mood to reshuffle their 11 Ministers-either by replacing them with new faces or by changing their portfolios-on the ground that the present set-up should be given some more time to perform and show the results.
“Any immediate reshuffle of the BJP Ministers has been ruled out,” sources said, adding that the BJP high command wants to give more time to present Ministers. However, the high command was committed to get one of its Minister of State elevated as Cabinet Minister if the PDP induct one Cabinet Minister in place of Dr Haseeb Drabu.
The BJP leaders had breakfast meeting with Ram Madhav but couldn’t get an appointment with party national president Amit Shah as he was preoccupied with analysis of Lok Sabha by-election results, which went against the BJP. The BJP leaders had also sought an appointment with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to brief him on the burning issues pertaining to his Ministry.
Sources said the BJP high command has called upon the Jammu and Kashmir unit leaders to perform both at the Government as well as organization levels as Parliament elections were just a year away and the party had to retain three Lok Sabha seats at any cost.
“We need to retain three seats at least if we can’t make it four,” the party high command was reported to have told the State unit and, for the purpose, called upon them to get local issues, which have cropped up recently, addressed to strengthen the party.
The BJP has been facing people’s ire in Hiranagar and Kathua over its failure to get Rassana rape-cum-murder case of minor girl handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and in Nowshera, Kalakote for getting the posts of full time Additional Deputy Commissioners sanctioned, leading to indefinite agitation. Significantly, all these Assembly constituencies including Nowshera, Kalakote, Hiranagar and Kathua, are represented by the BJP.
The BJP had in 2014 won Jammu-Poonch, Udhampur-Doda and Ladakh Lok Sabha seats out of a total of six constituencies. While the BJP had no chance in rest of three Lok Sabha seats, all of which fall in Kashmir province, it wants to retain three seats, which it had captured in 2014.
The party high command wants the State unit to focus on large number of Centrally Sponsored projects like National Highways, road, bridges, power projects and other schemes which have been given to Jammu and Kashmir to highlight them in the public to regain the lost ground well ahead of the Parliamentary elections so that there were no reverses. In State sector also, it wanted the party Ministers and leaders to highlight the works done by the Government.
Sources said the BJP high command after initial hiccups has decided to call it as an “internal affair of the PDP” the ouster of Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu from the Cabinet. The high command has finally taken the stand that Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has the right to include or drop any of her party’s Ministers.
Initially, the BJP had stated that Drabu’s ouster could be a setback for the Alliance and widen rift between the two coalition partners as he was one of the chief architects of the PDP in formation of Alliance and Agenda of Alliance between the two coalition partners.
Sources said the BJP leaders had detailed discussion on working of the coalition Government with the party high command.
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