SRINAGAR: Following the resolution of internal disagreements within the Kashmir unit and the reception of ‘apology letters’ from dissatisfied leaders, the BJP has reinstated two leaders in the Valley who were relieved of their roles in Kashmir in August this year due to “pressure from dissenting party leaders.”
J&K’s BJP president, Ravindra Raina, as per a report in The New Indian Express has recently appointed Veer Saraf as the BJP vistarak (party promoter) for the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency and Mudasir Wani as the BJP vistarak for the Srinagar seat.
Saraf, Mudasir, and another Jammu-based leader, Abhijeet Jasrotia, were removed from their positions in Kashmir in August this year and were directed to report to the BJP headquarters in Jammu. This decision came after approximately 100 party leaders from the Valley expressed their objections to “interference from Jammu-based leaders.”
These dissatisfied leaders, some of whom were original party members in Kashmir, claimed that they were being overlooked, and there were efforts to seize control of the Kashmir unit by the Jammu cadre. They demanded a role in the decision-making process. More than a month after dissenting voices emerged in the Valley, the party took action against the disgruntled leaders and party workers, issuing show cause notices to over a dozen party members, including former MLC and one of the party’s founding members in Kashmir, Sofi Yousuf.
In addition to bringing in two leaders from Jammu, Manzoor Bhat, a disgruntled leader, was replaced by Sajid Yousuf Shah as the BJP’s Media in charge for Kashmir. The discontent had severely disrupted the party’s activities in Kashmir for nearly two months.
