Sitting MPs Dr. Jitender Singh, Jugal Kishore left in a huff the crucial Party meeting
Jammu Tawi, Feb 27: (UPDATE: 3.45 pm)
To achieve the declared magical number of 370 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP will install and mobilize a large number of suggestion boxes in J&K for the public to propose candidates for Lok Sabha constituencies in J&K thus using a metaphoric symbolism to arouse public sentiments. The party proposes 10000 suggestion boxes at the National level. Besides, the Party will display special phone numbers for online suggestions for the respective Lok Sabha candidates for each constituency. The Information was shared with media by the BJP's national general secretary and Incharge party affairs of Jammu Kashmir, Tarun Chug accompanied by State Co-Incharge, Ashish Sood, state president Ravinder Raina and other senior leaders.
However, in a dramatic turn of events during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Election Committee meeting convened to deliberate on the names of candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections, two sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma left the meeting within few minutes reportedly in a huff and left the BJP headquarter without replying queries by the press persons present outside the meeting room. The crucial meeting, called and presided over by the BJP national General Secretary and Incharge of Jammu & Kashmir, Sh. Tarun Chugh and J&K state president Ravinder Raina, was expected to be a crucial step in shaping the party's electoral strategy.
Leaving midway the key meeting of sitting MPs has created suspense among the dozens of party leaders present outside the meeting room giving speculation that the discourse of the meeting was not palatable to the sitting MPs. Speculations are also rife that party may go for new faces even on the two seats presently it held. Hectic lobbying has been going on for the last few weeks to secure the party mandate for ensuing Lok Sabha elections by a dozen of senior party leaders. Some leaders, who could manage their lateral entry into the party fold and established their links with national level party leaders, have been floating speculative media reports to push their names for getting the mandate. The reports floated in the media suggest the names of Ravinder Raina, Jugal Kishore, Sat Sharma for Jammu-Reasi, Shakti Parihar, Narayan Singh and Dr. Jitender Singh for Kathua-Udhampur-Doda seat and Ravinder Raina, Dr. Shehnaaz Ganai and Talib Hussain for Rajouri-Poonch-Anantnag.
Outcome of today's important meeting of the BJP Election Committee, which was tasked with shortlisting potential candidates for the five Parliamentary seats of Jammu Kashmir have been watched with curiosity among the party cadre and political observers.
Later, in the press conference, state Party Incharge, Tarun Chugh said that the party would shortlist candidates from each of the five constituencies through an innovative mechanism of a special online Number for the people to access and suggest the names of their choice candidate. However, the Parliamentary Board, which is the highest decision-making authority in the selection of candidates for elections, would shortlist two to three candidates, including the sitting MPs, from each seat for consideration and eventual approval.
According to sources, the BJP is feeling optimistic and confident about winning this newly drawn seat because of the government of Narendra Modi's many people-friendly actions, such as granting political reservation to Gujjars and Bakerwals, granting them rights to forest land, and approving large-scale tribal funds.
According to sources, the State units' shortlisting of candidates is only a formality because the Parliamentary Board and party High Command will ultimately make the final decision.
