Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir unit of BJP has wrapped up its process of seeking inputs from the general public for its poll manifesto, a party leader said, adding that jobs, free rice and minimum power tariffs is what people have sought.
BJP started the exercise in a bid to make a “people-friendly” poll manifesto for the J&K assembly polls commencing from September 18 in three phases. J&K will witness its first assembly election after a decade. It will also be the first election in J&K after the revocation of Article 370 on August 05, 2019 when Centre also sliced the erstwhile state into two UTs – J&K and Ladakh.
A senior BJP leader said that it had formed zone-wise committees in both regions of Jammu and Kashmir to get feedback from people on their demands so that a people-friendly manifesto could be framed.
“We are done with the exercise and a detailed report will be sent to the party high command on August 18. We are expecting the election manifesto to be out any time after August 25,” said a BJP leader, who was part of one of the committees.
In south, north and central Kashmir, common demands of the people were—jobs, free rations and minimum power tariffs besides local issues of ‘sadak, pani and bijli’.
“We met all sections of the society including youths. They demanded government jobs, free rations and minimum power tariffs. These are the most common demands we got from the people during our feedback exercise in Kashmir,” he said.
He said that in Kashmir, Sikh members demanded minority status and introduction of Punjabi language in schools.
In Jammu, another BJP leader said the demands were almost similar to what people have sought in Kashmir. “There is not much difference between the demands put forth by Kashmiri people and people belonging to the Jammu region. In Jammu, people also sought slashing of power tariffs, government jobs for youth and free rations. They also demanded improvement in drainage system, upgradation of schools, colleges and health infrastructure,” the BJP leader said, adding that in some remote constituencies, people demanded road connectivity and installation of mobile towers.
“In nut-shell, the demands of Kashmiri and Jammu people are more or less the same,” he said.
BJP general secretary (Org) Ashok Koul said that a detailed report will be sent to party high command in New Delhi and the final poll manifesto will be out any time after Aug 25.
What remains to be seen is what would be the poll plank of regional parties like National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party who have fought earlier elections promising protection to Article 370. (KNO)
