SRINAGAR: The BJP is facing internal wrangling in its Kashmir unit as about 300 party leaders and senior workers, who are among the founding members of the saffron party in militancy-hit Valley, have alleged that they are being ignored and there is undue interference from outside, in the party matters in Kashmir. It has forced the party’s central leadership to step in to diffuse the tension.
Sources said that about 300 BJP leaders and senior workers are not happy with the way the affairs of the party in Kashmir are being run and handled. These workers and leaders, who are among the founding members of BJP in the Valley and faced militant threats, feel that they are being ignored and left out in the decision-making in the Valley unit, they said.
One of the disgruntled BJP members said the little-known party leaders from Jammu are visiting the Valley and trying to ‘hijack the Kashmir affairs’, creating divisions in the party.
“We have been complaining that these leaders, who are not visible in their own constituencies, are unnecessarily creating lobbyism and factionalism in the party’s Kashmir chapter. It is not that we are against the party leaders. We want the party to send the top leaders from Jammu to the Valley but not the ones who don’t even have their own constituencies and are creating divisions in the party,” he said.
The disgruntled BJP leaders and workers have apprised J&K party chief Ravindra Raina and central leadership about their grievances and issues. In order to diffuse the tension, J&K BJP chief Ravindra Raina visited Kashmir on August 9 and held a marathon three-hour-long meeting with the group of disgruntled leaders in a Srinagar hotel.