Amit Shah to address Jammu rally, meet party cadre

New Delhi: In a move to consolidate the Hindu vote bank, BJP president Amit Shah will be addressing a “massive” rally and will meet party workers in Jammu on Saturday when the party will commemorate the “Balidan Divas” of its ideologue Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. This will be Mr Shah’s first visit post his party’s break-up with the PDP, with whom its shared the government in Jammu and Kashmir for more than three years. Earlier Mr Shah was expected to attend a party meet and leave the state but post break up, enthused state unit has organised a rally.

Sources disclosed that the BJP cadre had been feeling “stifled” in alliance with the PDP when it came to observing the “Balidan Diwas” of Muherjee, who had stronly opposed to Article 370, which gave special status to the state. Mr Shah will address the rally at Brahmin Sabha Parade Road in Jammu and later will interact with the party cadre to review the poll prepardeness for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

In a move that surprised many, including the PDP, the saffron party decided to pull out of the alliance in the state earlier this week, with the BJP leaders quitting the Mehbooba Mufti led government and the state coming under the Governor’s rule.  Feedback reaching the saffron poll strategists suggested that its cadre were not happy with alliance with the PDP and the deteriorating situation in the Kashmir Valley was denting Narendra Modi led BJP’s image. The saffron party was not willing to take a risk with the general polls fast approaching. While the PDP’s core votebank is in South Kashmir, the BJP had won all 25 assembly seats in Jammu, where it has a strong support base.

In the current Assembly, the PDP has 28 MLAs and the BJP is the second largest party with 25 MLAs. The NC and Congress have 15 and 12 MLAs, respectively.