BJP vows to safeguard reservations for backward classes in J&K, says leader

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The BJP will safeguard reservations granted to backward classes after the abrogation of Article 370, senior leader Devender Singh Rana said on Saturday as he claimed that the Congress-National Conference alliance would deprive these people of their rights.

He also said any attempt to rename Shankaracharya Hill as "Takht-e-Suleiman" and Hari Parbat as "Koh-e-Maran" would be resisted as "both places are sacred and related to our faith".

National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Thursday announced a pre-poll alliance with the Congress for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which is going to the polls for the first time since the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.

Polls to the 90-member assembly will be held in three phases -- September 18, September 25 and October 1. The counting of votes will be held on October 4.

"The Congress has aligned with the National Conference, which, in its manifesto, talked about removal/review of reservations to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) -- whether it is political reservation or reservation for jobs -- to deprive them of their constitutional rights," Rana told reporters.

He added, "The Congress has always played with the destiny of the people for its greed for power and now it has exposed its designs to go against the reservations granted to Dalits, Gujjars, Paharis and OBCs, some of whom got this right only after the abrogation of Article 370 by the BJP-led (central) government."

In its manifesto for the assembly elections, the National Conference has promised to review the reservation policy to correct "any injustice and imbalance", without mentioning any specific group.

Rana said his party was committed to protecting the interests of these communities and "would not let the machinations of the Congress and the National Conference succeed".

"We will not allow them to play with the destiny of the SCs, Gujjars, Paharis and OBCs," he said.

Rana also alleged that the National Conference intended to rename Shankaracharya Hill as "Takht-e-Suleiman" and Hari Parbat as "Koh-e-Maran" and said "both the places are a matter of faith for us and we will not allow this to happen".

"The Congress has joined the National Conference in its nefarious design for its own political gains We will not allow the Congress to play with the people who have suffered a sense of deprivation and discrimination under various Congress-National Conference governments in the past," Rana said.

He said the BJP was committed to upholding the Constitution, as drafted by BR Ambedkar, and would not allow any discrimination with the Jammu region.