08-23-2008, 06:57 PM
BJP wants delimitation exercise taken up in J&K
Chennai (PTI): Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said the delimitation exercise should be taken up in Jammu and the Kashmir Valley as the Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in both the regions were not in proportion to the existing population.
While Jammu with a population of 28 lakh had only two Lok Sabha seats and 37 assembly seats the valley with a population of 25 lakh has three Lok Sabha seats and 46 assembly seats. Calling for restoration of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB),he said "Congress-led UPA government had meekly surrendered before the separatist demands and has completely messed up and unnecessarily complicated the entire issue." "Besides,separatists demanding Azadi (liberation) must be dealt with a firm hand and India should send a strong message to Pakistan not to interfere in its internal affairs," he said
He accused the Peoples Democratic Party of siding with the separatists on the Amarnath Land dispute.He warned that if timely steps were not taken to solve the crisis in the northern state,"Congress would pay heavily in elections," and wondered why the party had not severed ties with PDP, which,he alleged,had sided with the separatists on the land issue. "It shows Congress is guided by votebank politics despite PDP taking anti-India stand.History will hold Congress responsible for bungling with Jammu and Kashmir," Naidu said.
On state politics, he termed as "natural" the Left parties "drifting away from DMK.Left had already left the Congress at the Centre.How can there be dosti (friendship) at the State after kushti (bout) at the Centre," he said in an apparent reference to Congress being an ally of the DMK in Tamil Nadu.
On actor Chiranjeevi's entry into politics and whether BJP would forge an alliance with the latter, he said "let us see what policies and principles his party adopts."