{"id":13022,"date":"2018-11-14T09:28:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-14T03:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=13022"},"modified":"2018-11-14T09:28:30","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T03:58:30","slug":"sajjad-lone-the-man-bjp-may-choose-as-next-jk-cm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=13022","title":{"rendered":"Sajjad Lone: The man BJP may choose as next J&K CM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Centre May Announce Fresh Assembly Election Date In JK Next Month<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n

SRINAGAR:<\/strong><\/i> In politics, they say, perception is everything. Within political circles in the Kashmir valley, the perception is fast gaining ground that the BJP has decided on its alliance partner for assembly elections in the state which may be announced by next month. And the man they have decided to partner with \u2014 who could eventually become the next CM of Kashmir \u2014 is Sajjad Gani Lone, son of former separatist leader Abdul Gani Lone, who was assassinated in 2002. The affinity between the saffron party and Lone \u2014 a former separatist leader who is now a mainstream politician \u2014 had been building up for some time, political observers say.<\/i>
\nIn the aftermath of the fall of the Mehbooba Mufti government (in June this year), BJP general secretary and the party\u2019s Kashmir in-charge Ram Madhav had made it a point to meet Lone during his visit to Kashmir to explore the way ahead in the post-Mehbooba scenario.<\/i>
\nSince then, during his frequent visits to the valley, Madhav has met Lone several times, most recently accepting an invitation to dine with him to celebrate the clinching of the Srinagar mayor post by the People\u2019s Conference (PC).<\/i>
\nInterestingly, even though BJP has decided to tie up with Lone, the chances that the party can form the government in the current scenario, with him at the helm, seem bleak. People\u2019s Conference currently has just two MLAs and even with the support of BJP\u2019s 25 legislators and PDP rebels (if they are convinced to join the alliance), is far from the magic number of 44 to stake a majority in the 87-member House. With the six-month limit for President\u2019s Rule in the state ending next month and no party seemingly in a position to form the government, the buzz in political circles is that the central government may have polls conducted in Kashmir by March and a formal announcement of the BJP-PC alliance may take place before that. If this happens, Lone will be projected as the CM face of the alliance.<\/i>
\nThis would be the culmination of a long-held dream for Lone who was thrust into politics after the sudden death of his father 16 years ago. He has come a long way since then \u2014 from advocating separatist politics and talking about \u2018Achievable Nationhood\u2019 for Kashmir to being seen as the BJP\u2019s man in the valley. In fact, Lone had started developing strong ties with the BJP even in 2014 when his party became a part of the BJP-PDP alliance. According to sources, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had tried to sideline Lone following the alliance with BJP but the right wing party put its foot down and gave a ministerial berth to Lone from its own quota.<\/i>
\nInsiders say that by propping up Lone and projecting him as a fresh new face, BJP is also seeking to counter the old guard \u2014 National Conference\u2019s Abdullah family and the PDP\u2019s Sayeeds, with whom it has had a fallout.<\/i>
\nTaking the cue, Lone, too, has been of late talking about how dynastic politics (referring to NC and PDP) has led to centralisation of power leading to lack of governance in Kashmir. \u201cWe are looking for a space to contribute,\u201d he told TOI.<\/i>
\n\u201cThe slack in governance is massive. It would need a blend of experience and youth to get together and make our state a role model. For far too long we are amongst the low performing states. Our state has to come out of sluggishness. A group of like minded people is getting together and we are in the process of creating a team which will replace the politics of dynasties with politics of deliverance.\u201d<\/i>
\nTo a query on whether he felt \u201ccapable of being CM of this sensitive state if a new alliance emerges,\u201d Lone had recently told TOI\u2019s sister publication ET: \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of capable ex-chief ministers around, so there is not a lot of competition. Governance really is not rocket science. But one needs compassion and an unwavering belief that things can change.\u201d<\/i>
\nIf he does get to be CM \u2014 he has a tough fight ahead in assembly elections where he is likely to be facing National Conference\u2019s strong candidate Choudhary Ramzan in his pocket. <\/i>(TOI)<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Centre May Announce Fresh Assembly Election Date In JK Next Month SRINAGAR: In politics, they say, perception is everything. Within political circles in the Kashmir valley, the perception is fast gaining ground that the BJP has decided on its alliance partner for assembly elections in the state which may be announced by next month. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}