Srinagar: BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Sunday said that he strongly believes that the Election Commission of India will hold Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir soon. Addressing a press conference here at the BJP office, Chugh said that the Election Commission is making preparations for the conduct of the polls in Jammu and Kashmir and hoped they will be conducted soon.
"With the completion of the voter list, along with the delimitation, I firmly believe that the elections will be held soon," he said. Earlier Chugh, in a meeting with party leaders and workers at the BJP office in Jammu said that the elections will be held in May and the party should prepare for it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir and preparations by the ECI are on. This is the job of the ECI, the voter list has been published and we hope that the polls are conducted soon so that people elect their own government, Chugh told reporters here.
He said the delimitation exercise has been completed, the electoral rolls have been published and now the ECI will take a call on the conduct of the polls. "As a party, we are working 365 days. We are ready for the polls," he added. Chugh said PM Modi is now taking forward the work started by former PM AB Vajpayee for establishing peace and development in Jammu and Kashmir.
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Targeting the previous governments, he said, J and K is progressing now while there was a time when three families had made J and K an industry of loot. These three families looted Ja nd K for seven decades. People's resources were looted, development and peace here was also looted". The BJP leader charged that the three families handed over AK-47, stones and grenades to the youth of Kashmir in place of pens and laptops.
Vajpayee started peace here and now Modi is taking that forward and J and K has now become a tourism capital from a terrorism capital. Hotels are booked everywhere, youth are getting jobs. Stone pelting has become a thing of the past. Development is taking place, employment is being generated, he added. Chugh also charged that there was a tradition of these three families to come to power through proxy votes.
People assumed that politics of whole Kashmir is in the pockets of these three families. But, after the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, a conducive atmosphere was created, people started to believe in democracy and 11 lakh people voted in the DDC elections. These 280 members are real representatives of the people and not political heirs of these three families. This is the belief of the people in Modi's formula of democracy, he said.
The BJP's national general secretary charged that the Muftis and Abdullahs and their sons have tried to run politics like a 'Shahi Dawakhana' from generation to generation, but people have now closed their shops. People want development, peace, employment and prosperity. "These three families want to take J and K back to 1980s, which we will not allow in any way. We will not allow peace to be disturbed here," he asserted.
To a question about the attacks on minorities in the Valley, Chugh said, "We are committed to providing security for everyone and those who kill innocents will not be spared. They (the killers) are trying to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere. It is a ploy hatched outside and supported by some people here. We will foil all such designs," he added.
