‘BJP HAS TAKEN RIGHT DECISION TO PULL THE PLUG ON ALLIANCE’

JAMMU: People, including former ministers and party leaders, in Jammu have welcomed the breakup of the PDP-BJP alliance and called it a belated decision.

Former BJP minister Choudhary Lal Singh said the party’s decision to pull the plug came tad too late.

On the query whether BJP was forced to take such decision after finding its ground sinking in the region that gave it unprecedented mandate in both assembly and parliamentary elections, Lal Singh questioned, “Where does the BJP exist now?”

Singh along with Chander Prakash Ganga had to resign from the cabinet for their alleged role in lending support to the accused involved in the Kathua rape-and-murder case.

Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party chairman Harsh Dev Singh said the decision was taken keeping an eye on upcoming parliamentary elections to protect their eroding vote base in Jammu region.

“BJP formed alliance with PDP despite the wishes of Jammu people. Anger was brewing against the saffron party here,” he said, adding, “In the past three years, there had been resentment against the party as there was a total collapse of law and order in the state, especially in the Valley.”

Rajiv Chuni, president SOS, an international organisation representing people displaced from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1947, ’65 and ’71 said, “People on the ground were totally against this unholy alliance from Day 1.”

He alleged that Jammu region suffered the worst discrimination in these three years.