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Jaitley sells dream, a BJP Chief Minister in J&K

Hinting at installing Jammu based, preferably BJP, Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Finance Minister and senior BJP leader-Arun Jaitley today said that leaders of BJP in Jammu and Kashmir have potential and talent to apparently handle this state.

“In Jammu, the party has lot of talent and potential. We first noticed Dr Jatinder Singh on television during Amarnath land row, when he advocated cause of Jammu. With the consent of local team, we made mind to induct him into party. He became parliamentarian, proved his potential and turned successful minister,” Jaitley told BJP leaders and workers during inauguration of the party’s hi-tech office in Trikuta Nagar.

He said that many leaders from Jammu reached parliament, but their presence was just ‘customary’. “Dr Jatinder Singh is an effective minister,” he said and added that BJP has a political ideology which shuns ‘compromise’ with separatists. He said that BJP leaders sacrificed their lives for safeguarding ideology of the party in Jammu and Kashmir.

“When Jana Sangh was formed in the country, the first political issue was Srinagar issue, wherein stalwarts like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Pandit Prem Nath Dogra and others fought tooth nail to get rights of Jammu. We have given sacrifices for safeguarding our ideology in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. He said the BJP’s relationship with J&K is not merely political, but it is more emotional and ideological.

Pointing out that party faced a strange situation in the state, Jaitley said “We won maximum number of seats in Jammu and PDP emerged largest party in the Valley”. Jaitley said that despite ideological differences with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the electoral arithmetic dictated the formation of a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. “The people gave BJP their mandate to take care of the interests of Jammu. The arithmetic thrown by assembly polls also made clear as to which parties shall form the government,” he said.

He added that if you look at arithmetical possibilities of those elections, the only possible government formation was of the BJP and the PDP. Taking dig at the separatism, he said despite differences, both parties decided to move ahead with a probable challenge without compromising party’s core ideology against separatism.

“I think that both the party leadership at the Centre and in the state will have to face this challenge unitedly,” he added. “We are ideologically opposed to separatism and to fight that separatism, we have to take along mainstream parties as well as people of the Valley. This coalition government should be utilized in that perspective,” Jaitley said.

Earlier, party’s national general secretary Ram Lal also said there will be no compromise on party’s core ideology of fighting against separatism. However, “while carrying forward our ideology, we will also keep in mind the sensitivities of each region,” he added. Jitendra Singh, the minister of state (Prime Minister Office), DyCM Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Nirmal Singh, BJP State President-Sat Sharma and J&K Assembly Speaker-Kavinder Gupta accompanied Jaitley during the inauguration of the party office.