Kishtwar: A prominent BJP youth leader quit the party on Tuesday and filed nomination papers as an independent candidate from Kishtwar’s Padder-Nagseni seat where the BJP has fielded its general secretary and former state minister Sunil Sharma.
He accused Sharma, a former MLA from the Kishtwar constituency, of shifting to the safer seat to maintain his upmanship in the district, and making it easy for the National Conference leader former minister Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo to win the seats without a real fight.
Padder-Nagseni and Kishtwar are among the 24 constituencies spread across south Kashmir and Chenab valley which are going to polls in the first of the three-phased elections on September 18. Tuesday was the final day for filing of nomination papers.
The BJP has fielded Shagun Parihar from Kishtwar constituency, shifting Sharma to Padder-Nagseni. Shagun’s father Ajeet Parihar and uncle Anil Parihar, who were both affiliated with the BJP, were gunned down by terrorists in Kishtwar town in November 2018.
“We have always stood with the families of martyrs but you (Sharma) had managed a safe seat for yourself to maintain your upmanship in the district by escaping defeat (from Kishtwar constituency). If you want to honour the martyrs, why this daughter was not given the safe seat?” Rocky Gowsawmi, who resigned from the post of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) district president, Kishtwar, told reporters after filing his nomination papers from the Padder-Nagseni constituency.
The rebel BJP youth leader alleged that a dummy candidate was fielded against Kichloo to make him win the elections without a fight.
“The Kishtwar constituency was the one which facilitated 25 seats for the BJP in the 2014 assembly elections because whatever happened in Kishtwar, the reaction was felt across the Jammu region. But you (Sharma) turned out a deserter and traitor by surrendering the Kishtwar seat,” he said.
In the last assembly elections held in 2014, when Jammu and Kashmir was a full-fledged state, the BJP had won 25 seats.
Gowsawmi said he had taken a pledge to follow Sharma and “will not make it easy for him to win the elections”.
“I want to tell the high command (of the BJP) that he (Sharma) is running a one-man show in the district and we will not tolerate this,” he said.
The National Conference has fielded District Development Council chairperson Pooja Thakur from Padder-Nagseni.
Senior National Conference leader Pyare Lal Sharma also rebelled against the party to support Congress candidate Sheikh Zaffarullah and filed his papers as an independent candidate from the Inderwal constituency of Kishtwar district. .
In the Ramban constituency, the BJP’s district vice-president Suraj Singh Parihar resigned from the basic membership of the party and filed his papers as an independent candidate.
A lawyer by profession, Parihar was taken in a massive procession by his supporters to the office of district election officer to file his nomination.
“I have jumped into the fray on the request of the party workers and supporters who were not happy with the party’s selection of the candidate,” he said, referring to Rakesh Thakur who has been fielded by the BJP after dropping former MLA Neelam Kumar Langeh.
He said over 2,500 workers accompanied him to the party headquarters in Jammu to protest the decision but “the doors were shut on us and we were not even offered a glass of water”.
The BJP office in Jammu on Monday witnessed protests after the party released the names of the candidates with several leaders and their supporters alleging that “parachute candidates” were favoured over dedicated workers.
