Jammu, Oct 18: J&K Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Core Group Friday resolved that the party would play a “robust and constructive opposition” in the J&K Legislative Assembly while pursuing its agenda, which brought it, an “overwhelming public mandate in elections.”
A resolution to this effect was passed in a special meeting of the Core Group of J&K BJP, held today in the party headquarters at Trikuta Nagar, Jammu.
The meeting was presided over by J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina and MP Jugal Kishore. The meeting was attended by Working President Sat Sharma; National Secretary Dr Narinder Singh, General Secretary, Organization Ashok Koul, General Secretaries Vibodh Gupta and Dr D K Manyal.
Other members of the Core Group Devender Singh Rana, Surjit Singh Salathia, Sham Sharma, Shakti Raj Parihar, Sunil Sethi, Chief Spokesperson; Ajay Bharti and Balwant Singh Mankotia also participated in the meeting of the Core Group.
While giving details about the meeting, J&K BJP Chief Spokesperson Sunil Sethi said that the party reviewed just concluded election results and chalked out its future course of action as to how the party would respond to a changed scenario.
“A resolution was also passed that BJP Legislature Party would pursue its agenda with which it had gone to people robustly, raising the issues of people, particularly those from Jammu, who gave an overwhelming mandate to the party in just concluded assembly elections,” Sethi said.
According to him, the Core Group resolved that all the members of the Legislative Assembly, belonging to BJP, would stand committed to work for the people of J&K, particularly for the Jammu region and would not leave any stone unturned to ensure that justice was done to the people of Jammu.
“All the members of the Legislative Assembly of J&K have been asked by the party to play the role of effective and vigilant opposition in the Assembly to ensure that no injustice is done to the Jammu region by the Government of National Conference which is primarily a Kashmir-centric Government. The Core Group also resolved to strengthen the democracy and democratic institutions in J&K and to mitigate the sufferings of the masses by its hard work, honesty and commitment,” he said.
“We also thanked the Prime Minister for leading from the front which led to magnificent results. The party not only secured the highest-ever seats but also the highest percentage of vote share. This also meant that the majority of the J&K electorate approved abrogation of Article 370 and development works initiated from 2019,” Sethi said.
Regarding Congress moving to the court regarding the nomination of five MLAs to the J&K Legislative Assembly, Sethi said, “It was not discussed in the Core Group meeting. It is a non-issue. Congress is trying to create controversy out of nothing as there are clear constitutional provisions on this account. J&K UT is following the Puducherry model of governance. 239 A of the Constitution of India provides that the Assembly will be partly elected and partly it will be nominated.”
“Congress is reacting this way as it has been totally wiped out in J&K, particularly in Jammu. It (Congress) is just trying to make a failed bid to stay relevant in the scheme of things,” Sethi said. Regarding the Leader of the Opposition in the J&K Legislative Assembly, Sethi said that it would be decided at an appropriate time. “Central observers will arrive in a day or two to interact with the newly elected MLAs, following which the Leader of BJP Legislature Party would be elected,” he said.
Regarding the post of Deputy Speaker in the J&K Legislative Assembly, Sethi said that as per Parliamentary procedure, the post of Deputy Speaker is given to the opposition party. “We too had given it to Nazir Gurezi of NC during the PDP-BJP government,” he said.
