STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said here on Friday that Gupkar Alliance parties will spell doom for each other and meet the same fate in District Development Council (DDC) elections as they had met in the Lok Sabha election in 2019.
In a media statement, on his arrival here today from the national capital, Dr. Jitendra, who left for an election tour of Doda and Kishtwar, said that an unwarranted hype is being created about the alliance of Congress, National Conference and PDP.
He reminded that these three parties had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also in alliance and put up a single candidate though at that time it was not named as Gupkar Alliance.
Dr. Jitendra recalled that particularly for the Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency there was so much of euphoric campaign that a public perception was sought to be created that BJP would be losing by 80,000 votes.
However, he said, when the results were declared, BJP had registered a record victory margin of 3.58 lakh votes, the highest ever in Udhampur-Kathua-Doda constituency and also more than the BJP margin of victory in the Jammu constituency, whereas the candidates who had been speculated to be the winners had lost their security deposits.
France expresses interests to explore collaboration opportunities in J&K
New Delhi: France has expressed desire to explore opportunities of collaboration in tourism and other potential sectors in the northeastern region and Jammu and Kashmir.
This was conveyed by French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain when he called on Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh here on Friday, an official statement said.
Singh also discussed with him various potential projects in the northeastern states.
The ambassador conveyed to the Union minister the desire of the government of France to explore the avenues and opportunities of collaboration in different sectors in the northeastern states as well as tourism and other potentials in Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said.
Lenain recalled the fond memories of his visit to Kashmir valley early this year as part of a group of ambassadors.
The minister spelt out different sectors in which, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, collaborative initiatives had been undertaken in the Northeast.
In this regard, he referred to the Centre of Excellence Citrus Fruit Park set up in Mizoram with Israeli collaboration and the collaboration of Japan in some of the infrastructure projects. As for the Northeast, Singh said, there were vast areas of unexplored potential which were waiting to be explored. These, he said, include tourism, handicraft, handloom as well as food and fruit sectors.
The minister said that the prime minister has not only given special emphasis to the development of the northeastern region but also reoriented “Look East Policy” into Act-East policy and taken a number of steps to increase engagement with the countries across the eastern borders.
In this regard, he also mentioned the Indo-Bangladesh agreement on the exchange of enclaves, which was finalised with the personal intervention of the prime minister and also his initiative to amend 100-year-old Indian Forest Act to promote bamboo products and their trade, the statement said.
As the dates for filing the nomination papers for DDC elections draw closer, said Dr. Jitendra, all the three political parties will be jumping into the fray with proxy candidates and cutting into each other’s roots.
There are certain desperate fringe elements in the fray, whom the alliance partners expect to erode the BJP votes but, on the contrary, the voter is clever enough to get consolidated behind the BJP and show these opportunists their right place, he added.
Dr. Jitendra exuded confidence that BJP will again emerge on top in the DDC elections. Unfortunately, however, he said, some of the motivated and biased sections of opinion will find excuses not to hail the BJP victory, he said.