A day after participating in a nine-hour-long marathon meeting of the Core Group to devise a strategy for the coming Lok Sabha elections, president of the J&K unit of BJP Ravinder Raina on Friday addressed a gathering of Gujjars and Bakerwals to caution the nomadic community against "nefarious designs" of Kashmir-centric parties, namely the National Conference and Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP).
Leaders of Gujjars and Bakerwals from the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri were present in the meeting, where Ravinder Raina sought to draw their attention towards granting political reservations to the Scheduled Tribes of Jammu and Kashmir.
NC, Congress & PDP did injustice with Gujjar Bakerwal Community. pic.twitter.com/WYrb7OS2Fm
— Ravinder Raina (@RavinderRaina) January 19, 2024
"All political parties be it NC, Congress, or PDP, exploited you by raking up your emotions but you were denied political reservations for years together," Raina told the Gujjars and Bakerwals.
As Gujjars and Bakerwals will play a dominant role in deciding the victory of a candidate in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has started the process to reach out to this community.
High command asks J&K unit to focus on the Anantnag-Rajouri seat
Reports said that during the Core Group meeting, central leaders asked the J&K unit to shift all focus on the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha to improve the tally in the coming Parliament elections.
Sources in the party said that the main focus of discussion during Thursday's meeting was the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, where the party leadership felt that they would convincingly win the seat due to pro-people policies adopted by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for the welfare of Scheduled Tribe (ST) and other communities.
The nine-hour marathon of the Core Group meeting was attended by the national general secretary and Prabhari (in-charge) J&K BJP Tarun Chugh, Seh Prabhari (co-incharge) Ashish Sood.
Reports said that both the central leaders asked J&K leaders to devise a comprehensive strategy to ensure the victory of the party on this Parliamentary seat which spread in both Jammu and Kashmir regions.
The official statement issued by the party's chief spokesperson Sunil Sethi late has also indicated that the main focus of the Core Group meeting was the Anantnag seat.
In its official statement, the party said it would "strive to outperform itself compared to last elections in Jammu and Udhampur seats but it will convincingly win Anantnag-Rajouri constituency with vast support being received by all segments of society".
Granting ST status to Paharies will enhance BJP's prospects
As Pahari-speaking people are likely to get Scheduled Tribe (ST) in the coming session of the Parliament, the BJP is also expecting to get a majority of the votes of this ethnic community.
Keeping in view the deep ethnic divide among Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Paharies in this mountainous belt, the party leadership has also decided to focus on Pahari Muslims to enhance their winning prospects in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The entire Poonch district and Rajouri, Nowshera, and Thanna Mandi Assembly constituencies of Rajouri district are now part of the newly carved-out Anantnag-Rajouri Parliamentary seat. Anantnag, Kulgam, and Shopian districts are other parts of this seat from South Kashmir.
The Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency now comprises assembly segments including Zainapura, Damhal Hanjipora, Kulgam, Devsar, Dooru, Larnoo, Anantnag West, Anantnag, Pahalgam, Nowshera, Rajouri, Darhal, Thanna Mandi, Surankote, Poonch and Mendhar.
As part of its strategy for the upcoming parliamentary polls, the BJP is focusing on the Rajouri, Nowshera, and Darhal constituencies, which have sizeable Hindu voters.
Similarly, the party will focus on the votes of Pahari-speaking people in two districts of Rajouri and Poonch. The votes from the migrated Kashmiri Pandit community in South Kashmir are another area of prime focus for the BJP.
