BJP to fight bypolls, rules out support to PDP

M Aamir Khan

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 14

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said it will contest byelections from the Srinagar and Anantnag parliamentary constituencies and ruled out any alliance with its coalition partner Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“The BJP will contest byelections for the Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha constituencies...very soon a high-level committee will announce the candidates for these two seats,” BJP state general secretary (organisation) Ashok Kaul said while addressing a party meet at Dooru, Anantnag, in south Kashmir.

Earlier, there was speculation that the BJP would not field any candidates and campaign for the PDP for the Srinagar and Anantnag constituencies going to the polls on April 9 and 12, respectively.

“We have a huge party cadre in central and south Kashmir. So we have decided to contest these elections independently as a party, rather than entering into a pre-poll alliance with the PDP,” he said.

Though the BJP had earlier said it had enrolled over 3.3 lakh members in the Valley, the claim will be tested once the bypolls take place as the PDP’s coalition partner is still eyeing its first-ever electoral win in Kashmir. Pertinently, the BJP had fielded 34 candidates in the 2014 Assembly elections from the Kashmir region but all of them lost.

While the party is yet to announce its candidates, BJP national council member and Srinagar district president Fayaz Ahmad Bhat said a final call was expected to be taken on March 16. “There is a party meeting on March 16 where we will finalise the names of the candidates,” said Bhat, who had unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary elections on a BJP ticket from Srinagar in 2014.