Red alert in J&K BJP: After Ladakh MP, Jammu strongman, Lal Singh, quits party 

When the Air Force chopper carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed at Vijaypur in Jammu and Kashmir, on Sunday, February 3, several rude shocks were awaiting him at the mismanaged “Maha rally”.

Even though the Prime Minister started his speech in Dogri, a large number of people had left the venue before he could finish his address. The conspicuous number of empty chairs at the rally, ahead of forthcoming elections, has reportedly left the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worried. Many observers partly blamed party’s local strongman and two-times Lok Sabha MP, Choudhary Lal Singh, for thin crowd as he had given PM Modi’s rally a miss.

Not so surprisingly, two days later, on Tuesday, Singh declared to float his own party, cutting the ground from under the BJP. With a slogan, “Jai Duggar, Jai Dogra”, on Tuesday, he announced to field his candidates from both Lok Sabha seats, Jammu-Poonch as well as Kathua -Udhampur-Doda, besides all the 37 state Assembly seats in the region. He exuded confidence that the “balance of the power” in Jammu and Kashmir will remain in his hands after the next Assembly elections.

In fact, Singh had distanced himself from the party last year. He had been devoting all his time to his newly founded Dogra Swabhiman Sangthan to remove the “scars of discrimination inflicted upon Jammu” over the years.

Notably, BJP had won both parliamentary seats from Jammu besides all its 25 seats in the State Assembly during last elections. But its alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and unfulfilled poll promises have left many local supporters disillusioned. While the BJP doesn’t have any mass leader in Jammu province, Singh’s departure is being viewed as second blow to the state BJP following Ladakh MP Thupstan Chhewang’s resignation from the party and House in November last year.

The former forest minister was made to resign from the cabinet of BJP-PDP coalition government in the wake of Kathua rape and murder case. Recently, while touring all the district headquarters of Jammu division and addressing road side meetings, Singh has repeatedly accused the BJP of hurting “Dogra pride” by not firmly supporting demand for a CBI probe in the Kathua case, wondering why did the party ask him to attend a rally in support of the accused in Kathua last year.

A powerful player in Jammu’s political sphere who commands a considerable influence among Dogra-Rajputs, Singh soon after founding his outfit had demanded for bifurcation of state’s resources and institutions like Public Service Commission. He has been demanding delimitation of Assembly constituencies, claiming that the current seat distribution was “unconstitutional and discriminatory against Jammu and Ladakh regions.”

Jammu, according to him, needs additional seats, six for the Pakistani refugees, two for Pandit migrants and one for Kashmir Muslim migrants. “Kashmir region with comparatively lesser area, has 46 assembly seats whereas Jammu has only 37 and Ladakh region only four seats.”

Singh has proclaimed that his proposed party would fight for rotation of Chief Minister’s post, creation of two constitutional posts for the Deputy Chief Ministers and restoration of Dogra certificates, which would give Jammu youth preference in the armed forces.

Not new to controversies, in 2017, Singh was accused of evoking the 1947 massacre of Muslims in Jammu, to threaten a delegation of Gujjars. Soon after the assassination of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, he had allegedly threatened Kashmiri journalists of “Shujaat-like incidents”. Ironically, before joining BJP in August 2014, Sing had compared choosing Modi as Prime Minister to selecting dog, in a video interview.

Whether or not his proposed party wins any seats in the forthcoming elections, political observers believe, Singh is likely to queer BJP’s pitch, posing a major challenge to MoS PMO Jitendra Singh.

A turncoat, Singh had left Congress after he was denied nomination to contest 2014 Lok Sabha poll from Kathua-Udhampur seat. Many believe, it was because of him that Jitendra Singh could defeat senior Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad.