BJP President Amit Shah lashes out at PDP in JK after break-up

Why exactly did the BJP and the PDP alliance break off? Was it because of the cease-fire issue? BJP President Amit Shah clears up the matter.

BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday unveiled a long list of alleged acts of discrimination against Jammu by the state’s erstwhile People’s Democratic Party-led government, indicating an attempt at polarising voters ahead of the general election.

Shah, who met senior BJP leaders and reviewed the party’s strategies and poll-preparedness, was addressing a rally in Jammu during his first trip to the state since the BJP ended its alliance with the PDP on Tuesday.

“Many people ask us why we withdrew support to the PDP. I know my answer can create controversies,” he told the rally, held to mark the death anniversary of Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

Shah accused the former ally of discriminating against Jammu and Ladakh. “No financial help was extended to Jammu despite the Centre sanctioning Rs 80,000 crore for its development,” he claimed.

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“BJP is a party of patriots. Governments hold no meaning to it but development and the security of the country do. The PDP-led government failed to ensure the equal and balanced development of all the three regions of the State. Jammu and Ladakh were discriminated against so we decided to pull out of the government,” he.

He added that the PDP had refused to provide land for an AIIMS in Jammu and blamed it for the Centre’s plans for three medical colleges in Jammu failing to make progress.

The local watchers say that the BJP president invoked alleged inequity with Jammu and Ladakh in an attempt to reach out its vote bank in the two regions of the State apparently keeping in view the next general elections scheduled to be held in 2019. The party had won three of the six Lok Sabha seats of Jammu and Kashmir and all of these in Jammu and Ladakh whereas the rest in the Valley had gone to the PDP in the 2014 elections. Also, all 25 but one seat bagged by it in the J&K Assembly elections held the same year were in Jammu.

He said when a political party loses power the people associated with it grieve over it. “But when our government falls we yell Bharat Mata ki Jai because it is the interests of the people and the country which are paramount before us, not power,” he said.

PDP vice-president Sarjat Madni said: “We never discriminated against Jammu. How could we when we had a deputy chief minister and several ministers from Jammu? They never raised this issue (while in power).”