Madhav’s upcoming Jammu visit fuels ‘alliance’ rumours

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 17

Amid rumours of the BJP trying to stitch an alliance with the rebel legislators of its erstwhile partner PDP, saffron party’s national general secretary Ram Madhav is reaching Jammu on a two-day tour on July 21.

During his two-day stay, Madhav will interact with the party legislators besides holding organisational meetings in Jammu and Samba districts. Although the BJP leaders have termed Ram Madhav’s visit to Jammu as a routine trip for discussing organisational issues, his tour is significant amid reports of efforts being made by the party to stitch an alliance with the dissidents of the PDP. His forthcoming visit to Jammu has added fuel to the rumours of serious efforts on the part of the saffron party to form the government.

“Ram Madhav’s visit is aimed at discussing organisational issues with the district committees of Jammu province. He will hold meetings at Jammu and Samba, respectively,” Narendra Singh, general secretary of state BJP, told The Tribune. He said the party had already started preparations for the Lok Sabha, urban local bodies and panchayat elections, so Ram Madhav was coming to give impetus to it. Singh said Madhav would also hold an introductory meeting with the newly appointed body of the state BJP. On Monday, the BJP had announced its state body by inducting new faces into the party.

Sources in the BJP said during his stay at Jammu, Madhav would hold a meeting with the party legislators to seek their opinion about the prevailing political scenario in the state and the role to be played by the party in future.

“Before taking any initiative to stitch an alliance with any group, the BJP leadership will take the opinion of its MLAs into consideration,” a source said and added that the leadership was discussing all pros and cons before taking a final call.

Ram Madhav had played an important role in stitching alliance with the PDP after the 2014 Assembly elections and he along with former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had drafted the Agenda of Alliance for the government.