BJP bats for conducting Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Thursday batted for holding Assembly elections in the Union Territory, saying the Assembly is the only forum to make laws which the local bodies or district development councils (DDCs) cannot.

"Assembly is a forum where laws are made. A DDC chairman will not make laws, panchs will not make laws," General Secretary (organisation), J&K BJP, Ashok Koul, told reporters here.

Koul said the party will contest the polls on a large scale and put up a good show.


"We will have a good show in this election. The government will be formed after elections... Assembly platform will come here very soon," he said.

The unit organised an outreach programme here in which the party leaders threw light on development activities which have taken place in the last nine years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Koul said Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed massive development activities and lags behind none across the country in terms of development.

"Whatever has happened in entire country has happened in Jammu and Kashmir. It is not as if Jammu and Kashmir has got anything less," he said.

Pointing out the development activities, the BJP leader said Doda will become a hub in hydroelectric electricity manufacturing as four mega power projects have been sanctioned.

The railway line will come to Kashmir. The world's highest rail bridge has come up in Reasi, he added.

Road infrastructure has developed so much that Udhampur to Srinagar distance is being covered in four hours now, Koul said.

Party's Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Ali Khatana said those raking up the issue of revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir cannot accept that peace prevails in the Union Territory.

"Those who talk about Article 370, they don't know anything. Ask them if they have conducted even one seminar on pros and cons of Article 370. The BJP has conducted 10 lakh small and big seminars on it.

"They cannot stomach peace in Kashmir. They only want to rule through bloodshed and they themselves stay in Z security. Majority of people here are with Islamic faith. Islam means peace but they have put us through violence," the MP said.