Poonch BJP President failed to understand the strategy of Congress President in DDC polls; Targeting ex-MLC illogically to show his disappointment
(SALIL RAINA)
POONCH TODAY NEWS
POONCH: Recently concluded DDC elections will be remembered for long, especially in Poonch and Nangali block, where huge fight was witnessed between two districts presidents, BJP president M.R Chisti and Congress president Ch Abdul Gani in which Ch Gani won by thumping lead.
BJP president, who is a contactor turned politician, failed to understand the strategy of Congress cadre and started blaming traditional BJP voters and an ex-BJP MLC illogically to show his disappointment after the result. His inexperience in politics and irritation level was clearly visible after the first round of counting when BJP got 511 votes in Poonch block and Congress got 896. Trailing by just 385 votes after first round, BJP president came out of counting room and told his close associate in front of “POONCH TODAY” newspaper that minority communities did not vote for him and started leveling allegations against an ex-MLC of BJP, on the counting spot, without finding facts on the ground. BJP president is known in far flung areas for helping poor persons and earned a huge respect for him, but he became victim of hard-hitting Congress strategy which encouraged the narrative to hoodwink the voters of far flung areas that minority community will not vote for BJP candidate, but Poonch block candidate and BJP president also became victim of this propaganda and without understanding the actual reality on the ground, he started accusing BJP voters for not voting him, after the first round was completed. Entire leadership of BJP, which included M.R Chisti, Sunil Gupta, Pardeep Sharma and few BJP councilors were seen campaigning jointly for ensuring victory of party candidate, but what happened suddenly that BJP candidate started leveling allegations of backstabbing against senior party leaders. No doubt, BJP fought very hard and got votes from almost all pooling booths, but in between, BJP president failed to understand the strategy of Congress cadre. Think thank of Congress right from campaigning days flouted the narrative that minority communities will not vote for BJP president in Poonch block and this led to huge confusion among those voters, who were ready to vote for BJP candidate M.R Chisti, but falling to this high profile and hard hitting narrative of Congress, those voters reportedly voted for Congress candidate Choudhary Gani, who won with a comfortable margins. However, there is a huge resentment in traditional BJP voters over the allegation levelled by BJP president that the members of particular community did not vote for him. In an interview to a channel, which is available with “POONCH TODAY”, Chisti said, “Hindus only vote for Modi” and his without logic statements have ignited the sentiments of strong BJP cadre. Political pundits believe that BJP president is a good at heart person, but he is not a professional politician, that’s why he fell in trap laid by Congress cadre and without accepting his political failure in understanding Congress strategy, he started leveling allegation against an ex-BJP MLC. It’s a crystal clear fact that BJP was eying winning two seats of Poonch and Nangali sahib block comfortable and was very powerful during campaigning days, but Congress leaders devised a top class strategy that Poonch BJP leaders are divided into two groups and a group led by a former legislator never wanted win of BJP president M.R Chisti and this narrative was spread like a wild fire. Congress cadre remained successful in its mission. Even, BJP president who was contesting from Poonch block, became victim of this Congress led narrative and started abusing ex-MLC and traditional voters of BJP. In Poonch and Nangali block, BJP got respectable number of votes, but traditional BJP voters got annoyed with BJP president, who with his close associated openly discussed outside counting centre that particular community did not vote for him. Allegation levelled by BJP president against traditional BJP voters and an ex-MLC are far away from truth, because “POONCH TODAY” conducted a deep investigation into the matter and found that BJP dominated areas in Poonch block voted heavily and BJP got respectable number of votes. Large number of voters participated in poling process as it was evident from good polling percentage in various polling stations. In BJP dominated polling stations of Poonch block, in P/S Behra Upper 508 people voted out of total 733, in polling station M/S Jhullas 449 people voted out of 750 votes, in polling station H/S Jhullas 349 people voted out of 526 votes. Similarly in other BJP dominated areas like P/S Floor, 246 people voted out of a total of 352 votes in spite of shifting of polling station to a far way place, in GMS Dalera 397 people voted out of 513 votes, in polling station M/S Bhainch 505 people voted out of a total of 638 votes, in polling station M/S Pattian 373 people voted out of a total of 758, in Panchayat Darradullian lower in polling station P/S Jabi Nabna 171 people voted out of total 184 votes, where as in M/S Jadi Nabna 275 people voted out of 330 total votes. In M/S Hayatpora of Mangnar Upper Panchayat, 403 people voted out of 610, in H/S Mangnar polling station 414 people voted out of total 775. Similarly in polling station ZEO Kanuyian, 415 people voted out of total 482 votes. This data shows that BJP dominated area voted in huge numbers and the allegations leveled by BJP president against traditional BJP voters and BJP leadership proved to be baseless. However, BJP president M.R Chisti failed to get respectable number of votes from his own strong supporters in areas like M/S Dhant in upper Jhullas which is considered as a majority community dominated belt. Similarly in other majority community dominated belts like M/S Kawarrian having majority of ST votes, in Panchayat Upper Dara Dullian, Upper Mangnar, Kanuyian Upper, M/S Dana and polling station Dispensary, polling station M/S Saryal in Panchayat Bhainch , M/S Chaan in Khanter Dalera, H/S Khanetar, In M/S Kalsan polling station of Khanetar Kalsan, BJP president failed to get good number of votes from his own supporters. Even, on shifting of polling station P/S floor to a far away place, BJP president was seen attacking BDO Poonch and his staff and alleged that they worked under a conspiracy. Therefore, to hide his political ineptitude and failure to understand the strategy of Congress cadre, BJP president in anxiety, attacked an ex-BJP MLC and traditional BJP voters, who voted in respectable numbers in favour of BJP. Ex BJP MLC Pardeep Sharma was approached by “POONCH TODAY” thrice, telephonically, for his comments on the allegation leveled by BJP president, but ex-MLC did not pick up the phone. On the other hand, with the political incorrect gesture shown by BJP president, traditional BJP voters are not happy as majority of people, pleading anonymity told “POONCH TODAY” that BJP president of Poonch has questioned the credibility of particular community in far flung areas of Poonch block for not voting for BJP and this is hard to digest. They also said that they never betrayed BJP even in dreams, but after the result of DDC elections, questioning the trustworthiness of traditional BJP voters and an ex-BJP MLC by BJP president is very unfortunate and party needs to understand the sentiments of its traditional voters. They also said that rather than accepting his own error, BJP president, without any reason, is attacking those who stood by the party through difficult times. Going by the sentiments of BJP voters and failure of BJP candidate in DDC elections due to its reported inefficiencies, J&K BJP needs to bring reforms in its cadre, if the saffron brigade wants to improve further in future elections from Pir Panjal belt.