By IANS,
Jammu : All the 11 legislators of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in Jammu and Kashmir appeared together at a press conference Tuesday and declared “all was well” with the state unit, said to be divided between factions headed by the party’s state chief and the legislature party leader.
“There are no differences within the party, we are solidly behind our candidates in the polls,” BJP legislature party leader Chaman Lal Gupta said at the press conference, flanked by 10 other legislators, including the BJP’s state unit chief Ashok Khajuria.
There were said to be strong differences between Gupta and Khajuria, with the former having strong reservations over the candidature of Leela Karan Sharma – the former convener of the Shri Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti (SASS) – from Jammu-Poonch constituency and that of former state unit president Nirmal Singh from Udhampur-Doda.
Gupta had kept away from meetings with the party’s national president Rajnath Singh and his rallies addressed by him to show his annoyance. The party’s vice president and state in-charge Shanta Kumar had to tell the leaders to sink their differences and exhibit unity.
“Now everything is settled. There are no issues,” Gupta told the media.
“Our house is in order now. There should be no speculation on this issue,” Khajuria added.