No truth in TV reports: BJP spokespersons

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 4/18/2018 12:42:26 PM

JAMMU, Apr 17: Jammu & Kashmir BJP spokespersons Tuesday denied reports that ministers from the party would resign from the state cabinet in protest.
Notwithstanding the official denial by spokespersons, few party leaders on the condition of anonymity stated that BJP ministers had submitted their resignation to the state party president Sat Sharma, however, not in protest but only to pave way for reshuffle, necessitated by the resignations of Minister for Forests Chowdhary Lal Singh and Minister for Industries and Commerce Chander Prakash Ganga last week. The duo had resigned after country-wide outrage against them for attending a rally organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch in support of the Kathua rape case accused.
Earlier in the evening, some news channels reported that all BJP ministers in the Jammu and Kashmir cabinet tendered their resignation. However, the BJP chief spokesman Sunil Sethi said he had no information of the resignations so far. “I came to know about the issue through the media only,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Khalid Jehangir told reporters in the valley that during a meeting, chaired by BJP state general secretary Avinash Khanna, it was decided that nefarious designs of people who want to harm the communal harmony in the state would be defeated, adding that there was no question of resignation of the party ministers.
Another BJP spokesman Arun Gupta echoed Jehangir’s version. According to party sources, the BJP is going for a reshuffle and some of its ministers would resign yet it would be a routine exercise.
A national news magazine quoting its sources stated that BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav last week, in addition of seeking resignations of Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, had sought resignations of eight BJP ministers when he chaired a meeting of state BJP unit in Jammu. The move was to induct new faces in the cabinet for next three years.
Sources stated that the cabinet reshuffle in the BJP was even otherwise overdue after the PDP inducted Tassaduq Hussain Mufti and Javaid Mustafa Mir as cabinet ministers raising the strength of the party to 12, including Chief Minister, in the state cabinet. Later Haseeb Drabu, however, was made to resign as finance minister.
After the resignation of Singh and Ganga, the BJP has only six including Deputy Chief Minister as cabinet ministers. The PDP has 2 MoS while the BJP has three. To ensure balance in the cabinet, the BJP was likely to upgrade one of its MoS as the cabinet minister.
Yet another source stated that all BJP ministers were directed to submit their resignations from the state council of ministers in the core group meeting chaired by J&K incharge Avinash Rai Khanna but clarified that this did not mean withdrawal of support to the government. Sources in the Peoples Democratic Party also stated that the resignations of the BJP ministers would be a prelude to the BJP's reconstitution of their part of the council of ministers without any bearing on the continuation of the coalition government in the state.

 

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