by Faiqa Masoodi
SRINAGAR: Ruling BJP is facing serious music over “arbitrary nominations” and this was the key factor why the 44-nomination list was withdrawn and the 15-member list republished within an hour on Monday. The cadres are angry over certain nominations, top party sources said.
There is a bitter reaction to various nominations, but the most notable is that of Jammu West where the party has fielded Sharam Lal Sharma, an erstwhile Congressman who joined the saffron party in early 2019.
“There is a strong reaction to this nomination,” informed sources said. “Omi Khajuria was hopeful of getting the ticket and now he is very angry.”
Sham Lal Sharma won Akhnoor twice for Congress and was a minister in the National Conference-Congress coalition government till 2014. He is the younger brother of Madan Lal Sharma, who represented the region twice in Lok Sabha on Congress mandate. In 2014, Sharma joined the BJP, almost nine months after resigning from Congress.
However, this is not the only problem the BJP is facing.
The initial list of 44 candidates had left out three former ministers, put in the top list of the party: Dr Nirmal Sharma, Kavinder Gupta and Sat Paul Sharma. “The tickets have been given arbitrarily and there is anger among the workers. The people who have given their lifetime for the party have been left out and turncoats have been preferred,” The Indian Express quoted a party leader saying. “The hallmark of the BJP was that it always believed in merit over connections. But merit has been ignored this time.”
The angry party workers have singled out the two JKNC deserters – Devinder Singh Rana, Surjit Singh Salathia and erstwhile Congressman Sham Lal Sharma.
In Kashmir, reports appearing in the media suggest that BJP’s DDC member from Kakpora, Minha Lateef Bhat has resigned for not getting nominated for assembly polls. “Despite winning the elections, I was ignored,” Minha was quoted saying, “The mandate was given to someone who secured only a few votes.”
The BJP has nominated Syed Showkat Gayoor Andrabi from Pampore, the constituency that also includes Kakpora. Gayoor is a PDP deserter.
Party leaders told different media outlets that while they faced the music of the Kashmir society, the mandates were distributed at the whims of the high command. Insiders said many people from BJP in Kashmir have either resigned or are resigning over the mandate issue.
Meanwhile, the BJP 15-member list for the first phase has 10 Muslim candidates and only woman candidate, Shagun Parihar, who has been fielded from Kishtwar. She comes from the family of a BJP leader, killed by Hizbul Mujahideen. There are two other candidates from the Parihar community and both are former MLAs. Shakti Raj Parihar is fielded from Doda West and Daleep Singh Parihar from Bhadarwah.
Shagun is the only woman included in the party’s initial list of 15 candidates. She is the niece of the late Anil Parihar, a former BJP secretary in Jammu and Kashmir, who was killed by militants in 2018. Shagun lost both her father, Ajit Parihar, and her uncle, Anil Parihar, in an attack in November 2018 in Kishtwar.
