After coming to power for the first time in the history of Jammu & Kashmir in March 2015, the right wing BJP has become the single largest party in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council, the upper house of the state assembly, finally.
The development took place after PDP MLC Vikramaditya Singh, the grandson of Dogra ruler Hari Singh, resigned both from the party and the Council seat.
Singh alleged that “the party has disregard for the demands and aspirations of Jammu region”.
“In the last several months, the views I publicly expressed in particular about Jammu have not been in harmony of the party line. It’s no longer possible for me to be part of a party that continues to disregard the demands and aspirations of Jammu region,” wrote Singh in his resignation letter addressed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Mehbooba later accepted the resignation.
Earlier BJP and PDP, the two coalition partners had equal number of members, 11, in the Council.
After the resignation of Singh, BJP has now 11 lawmakers in the 33- member Council, followed by its ally PDP with 10 members while the opposition National Conference and Congress have six legislators each.
With total strength of 36 in the Council, as of now there are three seats lying vacant. Two other seats are lying vacant due to non-conduct of urban local bodies’ elections’.
Seen as a huge achievement by party leadership, BJP till 2015 had only one seat in the upper house. A leader speaking to Kashmir Life said, “the gain has to be consolidated and there is need to emerge as the single largest party in the state.”
The verdict of 2014 assembly elections gave BJP sliding victory in the Jammu region taking its number to 25, a record in the electoral history of the state.