Poll results: BJP unhappy over KPs cold response

 

Blatantly denies ‘minority status’ to the community

PS BALI

Jammu, Dec 26: Unhappy with the poor response of the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) voters settled across India, in the recently concluded J&K assembly polls, BJP high command at the center has ‘blatantly denied’ minority status to the community, saying it is prerogative of J&K legislative assembly.

According to party insiders, the BJP made intense campaigning in the Kashmir only after it was promised full support by the KP community.

The leadership had expected couple of seats from Kashmir, “Relying on the KP community party had fielded candidates with the hope that couple of candidates would win in the Kashmir valley for the first time in 67 years, if the KP migrant voters support the party as per their strength, but they turned spoilsport and showed cold-shoulder to the party,” said BJP leader, wishing to be off the record.

He asserted that amid poll boycott call being enforced by separatists, the BJP banked on the 92000 Kashmiri Pandit votes across Kashmir. “We had lot of expectations from the KP community, as they always complained about being deprived, but when we provided them a chance to chose representative, they pulled back,” party insider told Greater Kashmir and added that because of the community, BJP failed to mark victory in Kashmir.

He maintained that had the community not pulled back, BJP would have emerged victorious at least on two seats in Kashmir. 

“With Pandit electorate strength of 16710, the highest in any constituency across Kashmir, HabbaKadal segment, was the only seat where the BJP had given ‘sleepless nights’ to regional parties,” said party member adding that unfortunately only 2817 cast their vote, which was blow for the party.

Meanwhile giving detail about the KP votes, party leader said that in the Ganderbal and Bandipora districts, which went to the polls in the first phase of elections, only a little over 1000 out of a total of 3411 KP voters cast their votes.

Similarly, only 5258 out of a total of 17,015 registered KP migrant voters exercised their right to vote during the second phase of elections. In the third phase of elections, the participation of the KP migrant voters was very low. Only 4717 out of 19,575 registered KP migrant voters voted in the three districts of Kashmir viz Baramulla, Pulwama and Budgam.

He lamented that the overall polling percentage of the KP migrants in the recent concluded elections was not more than 55 percent, which was disappointing for the BJP.

However, he refuted any such report of denying minority status to the community. He said that center is doing what it is supposed to do in the Parliament, “We cannot correlate polling in Kashmir with resolutions in parliament,” he said and added that on this issue national leadership could better comment.

Pertinently, hours after sensing the trend of the election results in the state on December 23, the BJP government announced that “no proposal for according minority status to Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir is under consideration of the Ministry of Minority Affairs” and "The issue of declaring any community as minority in the state of Jammu and Kashmir comes under the purview of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.”