National Conference (NC) provincial president and former MLA, Devender Singh Rana on Tuesday asked people of Jammu not to fall prey to “false” election promises of Bharatiya Janata Party.
Hitting out at BJP’s state chief Ravinder Raina for his assertion that his party would get over 50 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections and new Chief Minister would be from Jammu, Rana said, “BJP has a history of fooling people using such emotional statements during elections.”
“In 2014 state Assembly elections, the BJP promised people that if the party was voted to power, it would elect a Hindu CM. On this promise, the party got decisive mandate from Jammu region but when the party leaders had to negotiate government formation with late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, they couldn’t even convince the late PDP leader for a rotational CM.”
“I want to ask the J&K BJP leaders-why they failed to elect a Hindu CM? And if not Hindu CM, why they even failed to convince Mufti Sayeed for a rotational CM?” asked Rana.
Without naming anyone, he sought to know why J&K BJP projected a person with 2 MLAs as their CM nominee after it (BJP) pulled out support from Mehbooba Mufti-led government. “You must have projected your own party leader as CM nominee then. You cannot fool all the people all the times,” he said.
He suggested the State BJP leaders should stop daydreaming about getting 50 seats in the Assembly elections. “People of Jammu are mature enough now to understand the party’s cheating tactics,” he added.
Rana claimed that in the forthcoming Assembly elections, BJP won’t even get 25 seats as the party has not done justice with the Jammu region.
He assured that if his party, NC is voted to power, it will do justice with all the three regions of the state particularly Jammu. “We will establish regional councils, one each at Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh so that every region gets equal share of development and people stop thinking about discrimination with any of the three regions,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rana said that J&K BJP leaders have to understand that their candidates won in the recently concluded general elections only because of NarendraModi. “Most J&K BJP leaders have been suffering from this hallucination that they won on their own but it is a proven fact that they won just because people wanted to elect NarendraModi as their PM again,” Rana said.
He dared State BJP leaders to just list 10 major developmental works executed in their three years of rule. “I am ready to debate with you (BJP leaders) on any platform. Just list me 10 major works that your government brought in for Jammu or that gave impetus to developmental activities in Jammu. I can challenge you have nothing to count,” said Rana.
He also mocked state BJP chief for telling a news channel that Article 370 of the Constitution is illegal. “The BJP leaders of the State don’t even know the Constitutional position of the Article 370. Let me tell them that a law that emanates out of Constitution cannot be illegal. However, it is entirely a different issue that BJP has been promising for the over past 60 years that it will repeal Article 370, but at least, they should have this much knowledge that an Article that is part of Constitution cannot be illegal.”
Asked when the Assembly elections would be held in the State, Rana said, “Except two to three people, nobody knows answer to this question. When ECI team arrived in J&K, our party batted for simultaneous polls. Our party leaders have been continuously seeking early polls in the State but it is painful to say that even the ECI is not answering this question as to when it will hold polls.”
On how he sees NC as an alternative when Congress and PDP have performed poorly in the recently held LokSabha polls, Rana said, “I feel that NC will repeat its performance of 1996 as there is no other alternative for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Our party has emerged as the only force people want to go with in the LA elections.”
On whether NC will form a coalition government with BJP, the NC leader said that J&K BJP has been using back channels to float this rumour that NC want to ally with it. “And the BJP leaders are doing this because they know this fact that NC will emerge as the biggest political party in the state after the Assembly elections. But let me make it very clear that we will form a government on our own,” Rana added.
