SRI NAGAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is unlikely to align with separatist-turned-mainstream politician Sajjad Gani Lone in the forthcoming Assembly elections in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir.
Sajjad Lone was a minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government from 2015 to 2018 from the BJP quota.
He had aligned with the BJP before 2014 Assembly polls after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The insiders in BJP said there was a lot of resentment in the party when Sajjad was inducted in the council of ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition government from BJP’s quota.
“Our party leaders raised objection that how can we give ministry to Sajjad from our quota as his brother is a senior separatist leader,” a senior state BJP leader said.
“We won’t join hands with anybody, who in past or present has any truck with separatist elements,” he added.“What has happened in 2014 cannot be repeated in 2019. It is 2019 and our party chief Amit Shah has already made it clear that party would go hard against separatists and militants and separatist politics is unacceptable,” he added.
Asserting that BJP’s stand is clear, he said, “We don’t subscribe and neither are we associated with a person, who is against the constitution and the country.”
The state which is currently under President’s rule is likely to have its Assembly polls sometime around November-December this year.