Amit Shah meets delegations from various communities during Kashmir visit

Amit Shah. File Pic

During his two-day tour to Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah met with representatives of the Gujjar, Bakarwal, Pahadi, and Sikh groups. On Thursday night in Srinagar, Shah had a meeting with the delegates. A representative of the Pahadi community, Mohammad Akbar Khan, told ANI, "They (the BJP) included us in the ST category and did us a favour. And we will also do them a favour in return. Whatever used to come for the Pahadi people, the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) used to eat it. Sikh, Pahadi, Gujjar, and Kashmiri communities have come to meet (Amit Shah)."

"We only came here to thank him (Amit Shah) for including us in the ST category. Gujjar, Sikh, and Pahadi delegations have come to meet him... We met like a family. Whatever the Home Minister or the BJP promises, that gets done 100 per cent. 'Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas' actually happens," a representative from one of the communities who met Amit Shah told ANI.

Notably, the BJP is not running for any of the three Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir - Baramulla, Anantnag, and Srinagar. The electoral tussle remained between two major regional parties, the National Conference (NC) and the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

The BJP had six candidates in Jammu and Kashmir for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, but they were unable to secure any seats in the region. Voting ended on April 19 and 26, respectively, for the seats in Udhampur and Jammu, and on May 13 for Srinagar.

Voting in the Baramulla seat is scheduled for May 20, and in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat for May 25.

(With Inputs from ANI)