BJP will go it alone 'as of now', says Jitendra Singh

JAMMU: Ruling out alliance with any party in the state, Union Minister Jitendra Singh today said BJP will go it alone "as of now" in the forthcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.

"(There is) no alliance with anyone. The party as of now is going to polls on its own and on basis of its own strength. There is being no option of alliance with anybody," Singh told reporters here today.

When asked if there was any possibility of BJP having an alliance with separatists in the wake of meeting of former separatist leader Sajjad Lone with Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, he said, "who said this (alliance with separatist)? we are not here to discuss individuals. The question of alliance would only come after the elections are over."

Singh, while replying to another question, said "I am here (J&K) to contemplate and decide what we are going to do...I am not here to decide for others,"

The Union Minister also said his party was not in favour of separatism and neither any of his party leader has said that BJP endorses it.

"I think it is your perception (alliance with separatists). We never said that we were in favour of separatism. I do not think any leader from BJP has said that he or she endorses separatism. As of now, we do not have alliance with anybody," Singh said, who is a BJP MP from Udhampur.

Lone yesterday met the Prime Minister during which the two were believed to have discussed the possibility of his working with BJP after the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

After the meeting, Lone had said that he had apprised the Prime Minister as a Kashmiri about the difficulties being faced by the people of the Valley due to the September floods.

The meeting with Modi comes after Lone, whose brother Bilal is an executive member of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference, had consultations with BJP leaders including Ram Madhav.