National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ram Madhav on Wednesday said the party wants early elections to the state Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have asked Election Commission to hold Assembly elections in the state as early as possible,” he told media in Srinagar.
Madhav said while the National Conference (NC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are happy contesting the Lok Sabha elections, BJP wants to have Assembly elections in the state.
Accusing the NC and the PDP of being selfish, he further questioned why the two regional parties announced candidates for General Election when previously they had asked the people to boycott the municipal polls. He said then they had said that Article 35A and Article 370 was under threat due to the Narendra Modi government.
Madhav said BJP’s stand on Article 370 and 35A continues to remain unchanged.
The BJP general secretary also demanded an FIR against NC’s Akbar Lone and an answer from NC for his anti-India statements.
“I would like to ask National Conference leadership if they agree with the statement of Akbar Lone over Pakistan? We demand that the administration registers FIR against him over such anti-India statements to provoke people. Action should be taken against him,” Ram Madhav said.
Asserting that the BJP pulled out of the ruling coalition with the PDP in the “national interest”, he noted: “After we pulled out of the coalition, the situation in Kashmir has improved.”
Calling the pre-poll alliance between the NC and the Congress a drama, he said, “They have an alliance in Jammu, but they are fighting in Kashmir. They are trying various types of gimmicks against Modi and the BJP, let them do it.”