BJP general secretary Ram Madhav
BJP general secretary Ram Madhav today clearly said that elections to Jammu & Kashmir assembly will be held hopefully this year. He however lashed out at National Conference and J&K People's Democratic Party for its "double standards" over Article 35A.
Participating in the day long India TV Conclave "Chunav Manch" here today, Ram Madhav said: "In the last one year, we have conducted elections thrice in the Kashmir valley. The NC and PDP boycotted last year's local bodies elections on the issue of Article 35A. The actual reason was that the leaders of both these regional parties never wanted grassroot leadership to come up through local body polls so that they can question their senior leaders about what they had done in the last 40 years.
"The same parties are now contesting the Lok Sabha elections, with former CM Farooq Abdullah contesting from Srinagar and another former CM Mehbooba Mufti contesting from Anantnag. Is the issue of Article 35A over ?", he asked.
"Now since the political future of both these leaders are at stake, they are happily participating in Lok Sabha elections. Let me clarify, assembly elections are not being held now because of non-availability of security forces.
"Let me assure you we will be holding assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir this year, and I promise we will give the democratic rights to the people of J&K, no matter how many parties boycott the state elections."
Asked whom would the RSS support if the BJP failed to get majority on its own, Ram Madhav sidestepped the question by saying: "RSS' heart is very large. The RSS likes Narendra Modi, it also likes a lot of people. But at this moment, there is now no discussion in the BJP over the issue of PM, nor is there any such discussion in the country.
"Every body knows Modiji will be the Prime Minister. We are seeking the people's mandate in the name of Modi and on the basis of the report card on five years of performance of his government."
He added: "Let me tell you. Ruling parties do not create waves. Waves are mostly created by opposition parties. But today, while being the ruling party, we have succeeded in breaking conventional wisdom and have create a wave in favour of Narendra Modi.
"Priyanka Gandhi went to Kashi Vishwanath temple, there were slogans in favour of Modi. Rahul Gandhi went to Hyderbad hi-tech city, and there too, there were slogans in support of Modi. Now that the ruling party has created a wave, we are fully sure that the nation wants Modi as PM."
Ram Madhav pointed out that there were several Maha Gathbandhans at present. "One Maha Gathbandhan is in Hyderabad, floated as Federal Front (by Telangana CM). The other gathbandhan is in neighbouring AP, floated by Chandrababu Naidu.
"A third so-called gathbandhan is in Uttar Pradesh where SP and BSP have kept Rahul Gandhi out. In Bengal, Mamata ji still consider Rahul Gandhi as a kid.So there is no single Maha Gathbandhan in the country at present. On its part, BJP will take all these alliances seriously."
The BJP general secretary said, "There is no clear alternative to Narendra Modi in the country at the moment.The alternative to Modi is instability, corruption, dynastic politics, and inefficient governance."
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