Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 25: Bharatiya Janata Party today pooh-poohed the National Conference claim to form next Government in the State on its own and said that an analysis of Assembly constituency wise polling pattern of just concluded Parliamentary elections establishes beyond doubt that the NC claim is hollow.
In a statement, State BJP Spokesperson, Brig Anil Gupta said that the NC has won in 30 Assembly constituencies, all in Kashmir, mostly due to low voter turnout while margin of victory is also very narrow in many constituencies. “The party has zero representation from both Jammu & Ladakh regions where it surrendered without contest while its ploy of a Mahagathbandhan failed miserably going by the huge margin of victory in favour of BJP in the three Parliamentary seats allotted to Congress,” he asserted.
Brig Gupta further sought to know how can NC claim massive victory from all three regions when their party did not participate in local bodies, Panchayat and Parliamentary elections in two of the three regions.
On the other hand, Brig Gupta said, BJP’s vote share of 46.4 percent in these elections is more than the combined vote share of NC, Congress and PDP together. Congress has a vote share of 28.5 percent, followed by NC- 7.9 percent and PDP- 3.3 percent.
Brig Gupta once again reminded Dr Abdullah and NC leadership that they don’t have the mandate of the people of Jammu & Ladakh to make tall claims about Articles 35A and 370 because people of these two regions want immediate removal of these Articles as is evident from the mandate given in favour of BJP.
“Dr Abdullah also needs to clarify as to how he proposes to restore peace in the State when his party wants to repeal Public Safety Act, remove AFSPA, demands withdrawal of Indian Army, wants ban on Jamaat-e-Islami (JeM) to be lifted and Operation All Out to be called off?”, said Brig Gupta asking Dr Abdullah to clarify whether peace can be restored without eliminating the terror and the over ground terror network.