PM Modi, Amit Shah to be at BJP meet on J&K tomorrow

New Delhi: The BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief and home minister Amit Shah, are expected to hold a crucial meeting next week of its core group leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, a state which is now under President’s Rule, where Assembly polls could take place with the three poll-going states by the end of this year. BJP working chief J.P. Nadda will also attend the meeting, to be held at the party headquarters on July 30.

The BJP top brass, sources said, will discuss the political atmosphere, organisational issues, including the ongoing membership drive, problems faced by party workers, particularly in the Valley, and its preparedness for Assembly elections whenever they are held. Mr Shah had made his first visit to the state last month as Union home minister, and told Parliament earlier this month that the Centre had started preparations and Assembly elections in J&K may be held by the end of this year.

Sources disclosed that the likely presence of the BJP top brass, including Mr Modi, at Tuesday’s meeting was significant and indicated that the party was gearing up for Assembly elections, whose schedule will be fixed by the Election Commission after it gets a go-ahead from the Centre and state government over law and order.

Union minister Jitendra Singh, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, state unit chief Ravinder Raina and other senior state leaders will attend the meeting. Earlier, Mr Madhav, the party’s pointsman for J&K, had urged the Election Commission to hold polls in the state this year.

The state BJP has said it is ready for elections anytime, with general secretary Narinder Singh saying there was still enough time left for the EC to hold polls this year.

Jammu and Kashmir is now under President’s Rule and Assembly polls in the state were last held in November-December 2014, when the PDP and BJP joined hands to form a government until June 2018, when the BJP cut off ties with the PDP.