Srinagar: Amid reports of coercion and horse trading, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) claimed that the Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) will fail to elect any District Development Council (DDC) chairman in the union territory.

“National Conference, PDP and Congress candidates, especially in Jammu region, avoided pictures of Rahul Gandhi, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba  on their campaign posters….Gupkar Gang will fail to elect even a single chairman across all districts of J&K,” BJP general secretary and in-charge for Kashmir Vibodh Gupta said while addressing a press conference in Jammu on Tuesday.

Terming the oath ceremony of elected District Development Council members held on Monday as the ‘dawn of a new era’, Gupta said: “Kashmir echoed with the slogans of ‘Vanda Matram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ during the oath of BJP’s elected DDC members from the valley.”

“In 1953, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee sowed seeds of complete democracy and integrity of the valley with the nation….which under the leadership of Narendra Modi ripened into a fruit-bearing tree. For 73 years, we have been saying that the land where Mukherjee was martyred, that land of Kashmir is ours. Today, Modi has given life to that slogan and made Kashmir an integral part of India,” he added.

Gupta further claimed that the active participation of people in the recent DDC polls was a vote in favour of abrogation of Article 370.

“One can easily conclude that the people have voted for Modi’s vision, in favour of abrogation of Article 370 and 35A and against Gupkar gang as Bhartiya Janata Party emerges as the single largest party in the Union Territory,” he said while asking the PAGD to accept the ‘verdict of people’.

“Previous regimes of NC, PDP and Congress governments deceived people and never allowed democracy to flourish in the UT. They blocked the Panchayati Raj and Municipality institutions and never allowed decentralization of power which is the basic tenant of Indian democracy,” he added.