by Aakash Hassan
SRINAGAR: As campaigning for the bye-polls of the Islamabad and Srinagar parliamentary seats started, BJP has announced its support for its collation partner PDP. It has decided against contesting polls separately as was early been said.
BJP, MLC Sofi Yousuf in a workers convention on Sunday in Khanabal Islamabad announced that BJP has decided not to field a candidate in the bye-polls. He urged voters for support to the PDP candidate, Tasaduq Mufti, brother of incumbent Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and the only son of late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Sofi said that the decision came after party held meeting in Jammu that was chaired by party’s national general secretary, Ram Madhav on Saturday.
“BJP has crossed the basic membership number to three lakhs and our all votes will go to PDP,” Sofi said. He offered no idea in which area his members fall.
National Conference and Congress have already announced to go together in the by-polls by fielding congress candidate, GA Mir from Islamabad and NC’s Dr Farooq Abdullah from Srinagar parliamentary segment. PDP has fielded Nazir Khan of Beerwa from the Central Kashmir constituency.
On Saturday, Tasaduq Mufti paid his first public visit to the area. Accompanied by a number of party leaders and ministers, he had a brief interaction with a sizable gathering. He has told people that they should avoid risking their life for his victory. “It does not matter if i win or lose,” he told the audience. “It is important that that you should always have your victory.”
Interestingly, PDP had ensured that there were no local BJP faces around on Saturday.
