BSP nominee leaves party red-faced

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 5

Fighting one of the toughest electoral battles for its survival in Jammu and Kashmir, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today faced embarrassment when one of the contesting candidates of the party withdrew his candidature in favour of the Congress nominee.

Shoukat Gujjar, who was a BSP candidate from the Jammu East Assembly seat, today announced to support his Congress rival Vikram Malhotra as he (Gujjar) was “impressed by the revolutionary policies and programmes of the Congress party”.

Interestingly, Gujjar was in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he was given the BSP ticket for the Jammu East segment. “Gujjar is still a part of the PDP as he did not resign from the party before joining the BSP,” sources in the PDP said, adding, “A PDP leader was given the BSP ticket who later withdrew his candidature in favour of the Congress candidate.”

This is the second incident in the ongoing elections when a party candidate has withdrawn from the electoral battle to support his rival. Last month, senior National Conference leader and party candidate from the Anantnag seat Dr Mehboob Beg had withdrawn his candidature in support of his rival Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP.

Interestingly, the BSP says it is not aware of the party candidate’s move.

“We are not aware that Gujjar has withdrawn from the electoral contest,” said BSP spokesman Pawan K Kundal. He added, “Gujjar is our party candidate from the Jammu East seat.”

Meanwhile, Gujjar, while interacting with mediapersons at the Congress headquarters this afternoon, announced his support to Vikram Malhotra, Congress candidate from Jammu East.

“I had entered into the poll arena with the sole motive to serve the people of Jammu East. However, the work done by my elder brother Malhotra in the past for the people of this constituency and policies framed by him to carry forward the development activities in the constituency have highly impressed me. Therefore, I have decided to quit from the contest and extend my wholehearted support to the Congress in Jammu East. Besides, my party workers and other leaders are with me in extending all support to Malhotra,” Gujjar added.

Sources in the Congress said the party leadership was trying to woo Gujjar to withdraw from the electoral battle because he (Gujjar) was influencing Congress’s vote bank in Gujjar Nagar area. Being a Gujjar, he was targeting his own community which usually supports the Congress in the Jammu East segment.