Amid growing apprehension among Opposition parties over the five members to be nominated to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, BJP vice-president Sofi Yousuf has said that they will all be BJP leaders and even named the five.
While four of these names belong to the Jammu province, one is from Kashmir. The Kashmir BJP leader, Dr Fareeda Khan, confirmed she had been approached by the BJP regarding the nomination.
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As per the , and the amendment to it in 2023, three of the five nominated members have to be women.
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In a video interview to local newspaper Greater Kashmir, a day ahead of the Assembly poll results, Yousuf said: “See, there is Ashok Koul ji among them, who is BJP state secretary; Rajni Sethi, who used to be state president of the BJP Mahila Morcha earlier; there is Dr Fareeda Khan, who is state secretary; and Sunil Sethi, who is the chairman of our disciplinary committee and chief spokesman of the party. The fifth one is a refugee, the president of our Mahila Morcha. All of them are ours.”
Asserting that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha would be deciding the nominated members, on the advice of the Union Home Ministry, Yousuf, one of the BJP’s senior most leaders, said there was nothing wrong in the government nominating BJP leaders.
Explained
Why the 5 matter
The addition of the five nominated members would take the strength of the J&K Assembly to 95, making the majority mark 48. As per exit polls, no party, including the frontrunner NC-Congress coalition, will come close to this number.
“Central government hamari hai New Delhi mein. Jiss ki sarkar, ussi ke naam jayenge (In New Delhi, the Central government is ours. The names will be from the party that is in power),” Yousuf said. “I am putting my stamp on it. These five MLAs are ours.”
Without naming anyone, Yousuf also claimed that most of the Independent candidates as well as the smaller parties in the contest are with the BJP. This is the first such public statement by the party, though Opposition parties have been accusing the BJP of propping up these candidates to divide the anti-BJP vote.
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Dr Fareeda Khan told The Indian Express that there was nothing certain about her nomination as MLA without Lt Governor Sinha’s confirmation, but “I have been told about it”. “People are also calling me, but it doesn’t mean anything till the LG sahib confirms it… It has been confirmed from here (party), but when it gets confirmed from there (the LG office), then only it means something.”
The BJP leaders in Jammu who Yousuf said were also going to feature among the nominated MLAs, however, denied any knowledge of it.
Also read | 5 things to watch out for in Kashmir poll results tomorrow: Will PDP play ‘kingmaker’ in NC-Congress bid for power?
Sunil Sethi, whose name is among the four, called it “media speculation” and said there was “nothing official” and “authentic” in it. “I don’t know where this news has come from,” he said.
Rajni Sethi said she has got no official intimation regarding her name being in the list of people sent to the LG for nomination as MLA. “I have heard about it on TV and party workers too are visiting me to enquire about it, but none of us has any official information about it,” she said.
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Sources said senior BJP leaders and RSS functionaries held a joint meeting on Monday evening in Jammu to discuss the panel of names to be sent to the Centre for nomination as MLAs. They also asserted that the final decision regarding this rested with the Home Ministry, who would recommend the names to the LG.
Opposition parties have contested this, arguing that the nominations should be made only on “the aid and advice” of the government that is due to take over, and not precede it. The addition of the five nominated members would take the strength of the J&K Assembly to 95, making the majority mark 48. As per exit polls, no party, including the frontrunner National Conference-Congress coalition, will come close to this number.
Also Read | Ex-militants across party ranks in J-K, including BJP; NC, PDP have fielded one each
Yousuf also said in the interview: “You should know that we had 19 candidates contesting on our BJP ticket (in the Valley), among them three-four are winning. Then there are Independent candidates whom we are supporting. They have been with us from the beginning… There are also smaller parties, two-three parties, which will get five-10 seats. The BJP will form a government on its own.”
Yousuf is also a candidate in the Assembly polls, contesting from South Kashmir’s Bijbehara constituency against the PDP’s Iltija Mufti and the National Conference’s Dr Bashir Ahmad Veeri.
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On Monday, NC president Farooq Abdullah said they were ready to go to the Supreme Court if the LG went ahead with the nomination of MLAs. “Lt Governor sahib should stay away from it because now a government is being formed. It is up to the government to decide whom to nominate and then send it to Lt Governor sahib. That’s the normal procedure,” Abdullah said.
He added: “What they want to do, I don’t know. But if they take such a step, we will go to the Supreme Court. What is the fun of forming the government if Lord sahib will remain here? We have to fight against all of them.”
Iltija Mufti said no lessons appear to have been learnt from the alleged rigging of the 1987 elections, which is seen as the immediate trigger for the start of militancy in J&K. “Might as well have nominated all 90 members (of the Assembly) instead. Why even hold elections? 1987’s stolen election took J&K to the brink,” Iltija posted on X.