New Delhi: Ahead of the June 27 review of Jammu and Kashmir unit, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has directed the party leaders in the union territory to start mobilizing workers for the assembly polls expected in September.
Accordingly, the J&K unit has started conducting workers meetings in key districts of the Jammu region, where the Congress nominees could not dislodge the BJP but significantly increased the grand old party’s vote share. The exercise started on June 23 and would continue till July 5.
During the drive, workers' conclaves will be held in districts like Udhampur, Doda, Kishtwar, Banihal, Ramban, Gool, Reasi, RS Pura and Samba areas, said party insiders. Reasi incidentally witnessed terror attacks recently, a first for the region. Besides J&K unit chief Vikar Rasool Vani, the two Lok Sabha candidates from the Jammu and Udhampur seats, Raman Bhalla and Chaudhary Lal Singh respectively, will also attend these meetings.
“The idea is to thank the workers for their support and mobilize them for the coming assembly polls. This is the first step to charge the party system. More meetings will follow after the strategy session in Delhi on June 27,” AICC in charge of J&K Bharat Sinh Solanki told ETV Bharat.
According to senior J&K Congress leader Ravinder Sharma, in the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat the party’s vote share increased from 31 percent to 41 percent while that of the BJP dropped from 61 percent to 51 percent this time. In the Jammu seat too, the Congress vote share increased manifold, he said, adding the BJP’s victory margin was reduced in both the Lok Sabha seats from over 3 lakhs to 1 lakh votes.
“The Rajouri-Poonch area which was a Muslim majority area had been taken away from the Jammu seat, which is now a 90 percent Hindu population area. Still the BJP’s margin dropped. They are paying for their own propaganda. We are in a good position and with a little more effort we can certainly win the coming state polls,” Sharma said.
The Congress leader said the workers’ meetings will also throw up local issues which will help the party design the campaign for the coming assembly polls. “Obviously the national issues would remain, but assembly elections are more about local issues. Restoration of full statehood is there besides special rights of the locals, unemployment and safety. Worker meeting will also be held in Reasi which had terror attacks recently. The Jammu region never had terror attacks but the menace has reached here also. The government claims it has wiped off terrorism, but the reality is different,” said Sharma.
After the removal of Article 370, which gave special status to J&K, in 2019, the erstwhile border state was divided into two UTs J&K and Ladakh. The Congress leader expressed concern that the Centre may defer the assembly polls which have to be conducted by September as per a top court order but said the party had to prepare the organization for the big contest coming.
“They may defer the polls citing the recent terror attacks in Jammu region, but that move will question the claims of the government. Anyway, we have to be prepared for the elections in September,” said Sharma.
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