By IANS,
Jammu : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and workers Thursday protested against party legislators voting for the ruling National Conference-Congress coalition’s candidates in Jammu and Kashmir’s legislative council elections a day earlier.Seven out of 11 BJP legislators voted for candidates of the ruling alliance, which won five out of the six seats for which elections were held. This became clear when BJP candidate Ranjit Singh polled only four votes.
To protest against the “political corruption” by the BJP legislators, party leaders and workers staged a sit-in at the party office in Jammu.
“Our sit-in will continue till the guilty MLAs are not punished by the party’s national leadership,” said party leader Ramesh Arora.
Ashok Khajuria, the chief whip of the BJP, had issued a whip to the party legislators to vote for the party candidate in the elections. He reacted to the poll outcome by saying that these legislators “sold themselves for monetary or other consideration”.
“They must be thrown out of the party,” Khajuria said.
Such is the anger against the BJP legislators that there were several anti-BJP demonstrations across Jammu.
In Wednesday’s election, the National Conference won three council seats, the Congress two and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party one.