Governor’s rule still an option: Central leadership to state BJP

JAMMU: Notwithstanding repeated statements of BJP ministers and senior activists on “no threat to coalition”, the party high command has reportedly told state leaders that imposing the Governor’s rule in J&K is still an option in case there is no improvement in the security scenario.

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 26

Notwithstanding repeated statements of BJP ministers and senior activists on “no threat to coalition”, the party high command has reportedly told state leaders that imposing the Governor’s rule in J&K is still an option in case there is no improvement in the security scenario. Instead of taking any hasty decision the Central leadership has decided to give adequate time to the PDP-BJP coalition to restore normalcy in the state.

“The option of the Governor’s rule came into discussions when a senior party leader held interactions with the Central leadership over the proposed reshuffle in the Council of Ministers,” disclosed a BJP leader. He revealed that the Central leadership had asked the state unit to put the reshuffle proposal on hold as restoring normalcy in the state was the top priority of the government. “It was clearly told to the state unit that the Central leadership is mulling over all options, including Governor’s rule, so issues like Cabinet reshuffle should be put on the back burner at this point of time,” he said.

During his visit to Jammu on April 6, the BJP’s national general secretary Ram Madhav had discussed the reshuffle proposal with Sangh leaders and it was decided to drop some ministers from the party’s quota to induct fresh faces. But after the April 9 violence, the situation has changed drastically.

Sources said during the recent visit of a senior party functionary to New Delhi, the Central leadership has expressed its serious concern over the worsening situation in the state, especially in the Kashmir valley, during the last couple of weeks. “It was conveyed to the local leadership that responsibility is on the state government, in which the BJP is an equal partner, to bring the situation under control as soon as possible,” a source said, adding that the Central leadership was unhappy over the way coalition had miserable failed to provide good governance to the people.

“The Central leadership is worried over recent videos, which has gone viral on social media, in which stone-throwers were seen heckling, abusing and humiliating security personnel as such videos have not gone down well in the core constituency of the party across the country,” a source said, adding that the local BJP leadership was given direction to boost morale of forces fighting with stone-throwers in the Valley.

The sources said the party’s national president Amit Shah during his visit to Jammu this week would also seek feedback from ground-level workers about peoples’ perception about the state government’s approach in dealing with stone-throwers of the Valley.