Santosh snubs 2 former Ministers during meeting for raking up irrelevant issues

BL Santosh, national general secretary BJP during a meeting with party leaders at Srinagar on Friday. -Excelsior/Shakeel
BL Santosh, national general secretary BJP during a meeting with party leaders at Srinagar on Friday. -Excelsior/Shakeel

‘BJP eliminated dynastic rule in J&K’

Avtar Bhat
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, July 23: Giving all credit to BJP led Union Government of eliminating over 60 years long dynastic rule from J&K, party national general secretary (organisation), B L Santosh today asked the party activists to work for welfare of masses in the Union Territory (UT) and take policy programmes of Narendra Modi Government to every nook and corner of J&K. He, however, snubbed some former Ministers and asked them that instead of raising irrelevant issues they should work for strengthening of the party at grass root level.
Addressing series of meetings of party office bearers, ex legislators and DDC members both at Jammu and Srinagar, Santosh said the era of dynastic rule is over in J&K as in BJP the dynastic background is no criteria and a common grassroot level worker can rise to top most post and position in party as well as Government.
While acknowledging the tough circumstances in which the party workers are working in Kashmir Valley, he said BJP as a national party wants to strengthen its base from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and asked the partymen to work in broadening its base in valley.
He said regional parties had exploited the people over the past 70 years but this will not be allowed now as the BJP is here to guard the interests of people and nation. He urged party workers to work for progress and development in the region.
“Now people are aware of their rights and they will say no to dynastic politics in upcoming elections, “he asserted.
The senior leader said party workers have worked hard on the ground and it will help them in upcoming Assembly elections. Even they have sacrificed their lives for the noble cause and their sacrifices will not go in vain, Santosh said.
“They usurped the rights of people and exploited them by showing green pastures over the years,” he said.
Santosh, who urged the party men to strengthen its base in Valley by taking the pro-people policies and programmes of Modi Government to every household, said this will definitely translate into victory of BJP candidates in forthcoming Assembly poll in Valley. “When you devote yourselves for strengthening the party and public welfare the seats will fall in your kitty definitely as people are now wise enough and they judge a party and leader by its performance’’, he added.
He made it clear that only prospective candidates will be given mandate in the forthcoming elections. Hence, the partymen should work hard to show their remarkable performance, he added.
“Keeping in line with Modi’s mission of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, the region has been witnessing unprecedented development in every sector. Now Jammu and Kashmir is moving to model region,” he said.
Santosh said by changing colours, politicians can’t hoodwink people anymore in Kashmir now. “The Gupkar declaration is nothing except another ploy and unsuccessful bid by disgruntled politicians to gain power and exploit the common masses,” he added.
The senior BJP leader said it is time to work and coordinate with party workers on ground and aware people about Central sponsored schemes.
He urged workers to take lead in awareness programme on vaccination to far-flung areas of the region. During COVID-19, party leadership worked hard to reach out to the needy people and conveyed a message that welfare of people is BJP’s top priority, he added.
Earlier during his meetings at Jammu, Santosh snubbed two former Ministers who tried to rake up some issues which he termed were totally irrelevant and advised them that instead of raising such issues they should work for welfare of the people and strengthening of the organization.
One former Minister tried to say during the meeting of legislators that administration does not pay heed to the issues raised by them. While snubbing him Santosh said, how can administration dare to ignore you and the issues raised by you if they are really in the interests of common people. “If you take personal issues to them they will definitely not agree to that’’, he added and asked the partymen to identify themselves with the problems of masses and get them addressed.
Another former Minister was critical of bringing the people from NC and other parties in BJP fold who even fought BDC and DDC elections against the party and termed it a discouragement to party leaders working in that particular area. Ridiculing him the party national general secretary said BJP is pan Indian party and people from any organization impressed by its ideology can join it.
“We have not promised any one mandate and it will be decided at the time of elections who will be given mandate and who not by the party but this should make no difference for any body’’, he added.
On the second day of his visit to J&K, Santosh chaired a meeting of former MLAs & MLCs, at Party headquarter, Jammu, followed by another meeting of office bearers of J&K unit of BJP in presence of J&K president Ravinder Raina and Seh-Prabhari Ashish Sood who also accompanied him to Srinagar later.
While speaking in these meetings, he said that after the Delimitation Commission’s report, the next step would be elections and partymen have to prepare for the same to register their victory with thumping majority.
He said that the splendid development under PM Narendra Modi during the seven years and new projects of Health, Education, Power etc gifted to J&K after its reconstitution are the hallmark of the Union Government and the it needs to be highlighted at every platform.
Santosh stressed on the constitution of Booth Committees and taking up the party’s programmes to booth level. He also sought details from the district Prabharis about the number of Mandals, their visits to the Mandals and asked them to put more efforts to ensure that party activists assigned different responsibilities are in constant touch with their seniors.
Prominent among those who attended these meetings included national secretary BJP Dr. Narinder Singh, former MP Shamsher Singh Manhas, vice-presidents Varinderjit Singh, Sham Lal Sharma, Pawan Khajuria, Yudhvir Sethi, Sham Choudhary, Aseem Gupta, general secretaries, Dr. Davinder Manyal, Ashok Kaul, Vivodh Gupta, former Dy. Chief Minister, Kavinder Gupta, former presidents Ashok Khajuria, Sat Sharma, Head Quarter Incharge, Priya Sethi, former Ministers Sukhnandan Kumar, Ajay Nanda, Shakti Parihar, Abdul Gani Kholi, secretaries Arvind Gupta, Rekha Mahajan, treasurer Prabhat Singh, office secretary Tilak Raj Gupta, spokespersons Rajni Sethi, Abhinav Sharma, Balbir Ram Rattan, Arun Gupta, Dr. Tahir Choudhary, Abijeet Jasrotia, Inderjeet Samybal, former MLAs Rajeev Sharma, Ashwani Sharma, former MLCs Ch. Vikram Randhawa, Girdhari Lal and All Morcha Incharges Munish Sharma.