SRINAGAR: Union Minister Jitendra Singh has rejected the Opposition’s claim that independent MP Engineer Rashid is a “BJP proxy”, saying the party does not need “clutches” to win an election.
Speaking at ‘Panchayat AajTak’ event on the banks of Srinagar’s iconic Dal Lake, Jitendra Singh said, “As a BJP worker, I feel elated hearing this because it shows that the Opposition has accepted its defeat. Such statements are delivered from a position of weakness, not from a position of strength.”
The minister’s statement came a day after Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid, walked out of Delhi’s Tihar Jail. The National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party charged that Rashid, an independent MP from the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, who was in jail in connection with a terror funding case, was released by the BJP-led central government to cut the Opposition’s votes in the upcoming Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir. However, in his first statement after walking out of jail, Engineer Rashid rejected the claims that he was the BJP’s proxy. “How can a man who has been the victim of the BJP’s politics be its proxy?” he asked.
Jitendra Singh highlighted that the BJP is capable of winning elections on its own and does not need proxies. “Since they (Opposition) can see that they are losing, they are talking about proxies, B-teams and what not. We don’t have and don’t need proxies. Clutches are needed by those who are not capable of winning themselves,” he said.
Speaking about alliances, Jitendra Singh said that for the BJP, ideology holds prominence.
“We voluntarily walked out of alliance with the PDP (in 2018). There was no political compulsion, no vote of confidence, no pressure from the public. We felt we were unable to work on the common minimum programme we had based on our ideology. So we took an ideological stand and left the alliance,” he said. short headline and attractive one
