Abandoned government not people of Jammu and Kashmir, says BJP’s Ram Madhav

BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, who was the key architect of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) failed alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday said that his party has abandoned government in Jammu and Kashmir but will continue to work for the betterment of people of the Valley.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BJP had ditched the PDP and pulled out of its alliance with the latter, leading to the fall of Mehbooba Mufti government in the state.

Reacting to the opposition parties’ allegations that the ‘unnatural’ alliance with the PDP was called off in wake of elections next year, the BJP national general secretary said that the decision was made in the larger interest of the nation and not for political gains.

“Decision never had electoral consideration behind it, it was for the larger interest of the nation and the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” ANI quoted him as saying.

The BJP leader said that his party will keep on working for the betterment of people of Kashmir and asserted that the terror operations in the Valley will continue as before.

“We've abandoned the government in J&K but not the people of the state. We'll work for their betterment. We had a four-pronged strategy, including hot pursuit against terrorists that will continue,” the BJP leader said.

Discrimination, non-development, alienation led to the fall of BJP-PDP alliance

Counting the reasons behind the fall of BJP-PDP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir, Ram Madhav said that rather than addressing the question of more alienation in the Valley, the Mehbooba Mufti government in the state was pampering it.

"There is a sense of lack of development & discrimination in Jammu and Ladakh and perceptible non-development in Kashmir, leading to more alienation. Rather than addressing the question of alienation our partner(PDP) chose to pamper it. All this made us believe we have to part ways," he said.

No question of horse-trading from BJP's side

On Omar Abdullah’s accusations of horse-trading, Madhav strongly denied the charges and asked the National Conference (NC) chief that why he was so scared if his party men were loyal to him.

“Why is he (Omar Abdullah) so scared? I'm sure his party men are loyal to him. There is no question of horse-trading from our side,” he added. “We've seen what kind of horse-trading happened in J&K under his party, nobody should forget the history.”

Referring to former deputy CM Kavinder Gupta’s remark that the BJP “was working on something” to form the government in the Valley, Abdullah had said that the only “something” would be that the saffron party will break other parties to get numbers.