Congress: BJP is weak in the Kashmir Valley and is not willing to compete

The Jammu and Kashmir Congress chairman, Vikar Rasool Wani, expressed confidence that his party would win both of the Jammu region’s three Lok Sabha seats on Sunday, saying that the BJP is not fielding a candidate there because its support is weak.

He said that the INDIA group will safeguard “culture, jobs and land,” reinstate statehood, and conduct assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir if it were to win the majority at the Centre.

One day prior, Ravinder Raina, the chief of the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit, defended the party’s decision to not field candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir region—Anantnag-Rajouri, Srinagar, and Baramulla—arguing that sometimes “decisions are made to achieve a big goal” and that the party is backing “patriotic” parties in these areas.

Wani responded to the remarks by calling Raina “Hawa Baaz”—someone who constructs castles in the air. “There is no voting base or public support for them (the BJP). How would they contest elections in Kashmir when they have no cadre basis, no campaign, and no polling agent? he said.

The Congress representative said that since the BJP has only provided “lollipops to the public over the past 10 years,” they have also lost popularity in Jammu. Wani said, “The same fate awaits the party in the Jammu Lok Sabha seat.” The people of Jammu and Kashmir have made up their minds to give the BJP a lesson, and they have done so in Udhampur during the first round of voting. “They voted for change and we are confident of winning the seat,” the Congress leaders stated, thanking the people of Udhampur for exercising their democratic right in spite of the severe rains.