Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 13: Resentment is brewing in the BJP against the Party’s decision to surrender the vice chairperson post of State Advisory Board for Development of Scheduled Castes to alliance partner People’s Democratic Party (PDP) while ignoring the Party leaders from the SC category.
According to Party sources, the BJP leaders belonging to SC category have conveyed their strong resentment to senior Party leadership and have also decided to take up the issue with the Party High Command. They said the SCs in Jammu had en-block voted for the Party in both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections of last year with the result the Party for the first time in the electoral history of the State emerged victorious on all seven reserved seats for SCs.
Except appointing one MLA from the community as Cabinet Minister, the Party ignored the community totally. Though one of the senior leaders of the Party who was associated with Jan Sangh and later with BJP since his childhood had pinned high hopes that the Party might nominate him to Upper House last time and he was also given an assurance in this regard by the senior party leadership but the decision was changed at the eleventh hour, sources said.
They added that while appointing chairpersons of the various advisory boards the senior SC leaders were again pinning high hopes that one of them would be definitely adjusted for the post. But much to their discomfiture the party surrendered the post to PDP which has won maximum Assembly seats from Kashmir valley where there is no SC population.
The SC leaders of BJP not only feel dejected with the decision but also consider it a sell out before PDP. A sizable section of the Party’s SC leadership said that this way the BJP was eroding its base among weaker sections of the society in the State who enmass switched towards party during last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
The SC leaders of the Party feel that this way the Party has surrendered totally to the PDP due to which there is lot of resentment among the Party leaders as they feel totally betrayed. The PDP has no base in Jammu region especially among SCs and surrendering the seat to it is totally unfortunate, says a senior SC leader of the Party on the condition of anonymity.
“We will discuss the issue in Party foras as what led it to give the post of VC SC Advisory Board to PDP”, said Jeet Angral, leader of BJP SC Morcha. He said the meeting will be convened soon in which the issue will be taken up with the Party organizational general secretary and other senior leaders.
ND Rajwal, another senior leader of the Morcha said for all practical purposes the post should have been given to BJP as it has every claim on it. However, he said the Party has now taken the decision and “we can’t challenge it”.
Surinder Bhagat, president BJP SC Morcha and general secretary, Megh Sabha said that SCs have sizable number of votes in 28 Assembly segments of Jammu and they are a deciding factor in these constituencies. In last Assembly and Parliamentary elections the community en-block voted for BJP and this was admitted by all senior leaders of the Party during a felicitation function organized by the Morcha last year. The leadership is discussing the situation created by Party decision and the issue was also discussed in Megh Sudhar Sabha meeting convened here today, he added.
Former BJP MLA Bharat Bushan alias Bodhi, however, said that he has no comments as it is Party decision and he can’t challenge the same.
When contacted, BJP State president Jugal Kishore Sharma said that more Boards and Corporations are still to be constituted the BJP will get its due share in them. He denied that appointing a PDP man to SC Advisory Board tantamount to surrender before the Party.
Follow our WhatsApp channel