Aversion to BDC election exposes 'hollowness' of Cong, NC, PDP: BJP

The Jammu and Kashmir BJP on Wednesday slammed the Congress, the PDP and the NC for not contesting the first-ever Block Development Council (BDC) polls being held in the state on October 24. A notification was issued on Tuesday for the election of chairpersons of BDC in 310 blocks of Jammu and Kashmir, the first polls in the state after abrogation of its special status on August 5.

The Congress has decided to boycott the election, the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not any candidates. State Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Brig (Retd) Anil Gupta said the "hollowness" of the three parties had been exposed and they were unable to digest the effort made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthen democracy in the state.

"The power-brokers who have always put their political interests above the interest of the common man and kept him disempowered are now scared of the emergence of new faces and new leadership in the form of Chairmen of BDCs," Gupta said. "These Chairmen will fill the political vacuum created due to the current leadership being obdurate," Gupta said, adding Panchs and Sarpanchs duly empowered would provide the grass root leadership and work for the betterment of people.

He said Panchayati Raj Institutions are inseparable part of our democratic system and are meant to compliment the system and not act as a parallel centre of power. "This reality needs to be accepted by the NC and the PDP as much as they need to accept the reality of abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A. They need to reorient in order to remain relevant as mainstream political parties," Gupta said.

Claiming that the Congress, the NC and the PDP have lost "complete contact" with the ground level workers, Gupta alleged that the parties had got so used to "drawing-room politics" that they have completely ignored grass root workers. "With the process of conducting elections for the BDC underway, the hollowness from which the main political parties of the state suffer has been exposed," he said, adding "disillusioned and leaderless, their cadre has gone into hibernation."

He said as far as the NC and the PDP is concerned, their leadership was never sincere about devolution of power to the lower rung. "They were always scared of the seat of power shifting from Gupkar Road to grassroots leaders at Panchayat and block level. The new power structure in the form of Panchayati Raj was always viewed by them as a challenge to their dynastic politics," he said.

The BJP leader further alleged that the Congress has failed to find candidates who are willing to contest on the party's symbol. "The Congress leadership needs introspection and should get rid of its ostrich like mindset," he said.

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