THE FIRST-EVER Chief of the Opposition of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir is a legislator who has made his mark as a firebrand chief of the Chenab Valley areas of Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban, that are the components of Jammu province the place the social gathering didn’t do in addition to it had hoped this time.
Considerably, this got here lower than a month after Union Residence Minister Amit Shah, throughout an election rally within the Padder-Nagseni Meeting constituency for Sharma, a BJP J&Ok basic secretary, appealed to the voters to elect him as MLA, promising that the social gathering would “make him an enormous man”. Sharma secured a slender win over NC chief Pooja Thakur, who’s the chairperson of the District Growth Council, Kishtwar.
Sharma, 47, as soon as labored as a Particular Police Officer, who have been recruited by the J&Ok Police in its combat towards militancy within the area within the mid-Nineties. He gained his maiden election in 2014 as a BJP nominee from Kishtwar, defeating Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo, former Nationwide Convention dwelling minister.
The BJP inducted him as a minister within the coalition authorities it fashioned with the PDP after the elections.
BJP sources mentioned that Sharma performed a key function within the development of the social gathering in Chenab Valley area, particularly after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
When the demand for Scheduled Tribe standing by members of the Pahari ethnic group intensified within the Rajouri and Poonch districts, Sharma led delegations to the Centre demanding related standing for the folks of Padder in Kishtwar district. Consequently, when the Narendra Modi authorities declared ST standing for Paharis, it gave related standing to the Paddri tribe together with Gadda Brahmins and Kolis of Padder.
Padder-Nagseni, from the place Sharma contested this time, is a brand new, Hindu-dominated constituency, carved out of Kishtwar. Whereas Sharma gained from Paddar-Nagseni, the Kishtwar seat was gained by one other BJP candidate, Shagun Parihar, whose father and uncle have been killed by militants close to their dwelling in Kishtwar in November 2018.
Earlier than delimitation, all of the six constituencies within the Chenab Valley have been Muslim-majority. However now not less than three of the eight seats it contains now, together with Doda West, Padder-Nagseni and Kishtwar are Hindu-majority.
Of the 29 seats the BJP gained total within the Meeting elections, 4 got here from the Chenab Valley area. In 2014 additionally, it had gained the same variety of seats within the area, which then had six Meeting constituencies, indicating that the social gathering’s gamble over the ST standing to Paharis didn’t repay in addition to it had hoped.
