Kathua rape case: Jammu BJP shows solidarity with sacked ministers

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday asked all its nine ministers in Mehbooba Mufti-led Jammu and Kashmir government to quit the state council of ministers.

According to party sources, this was to pave the way to bring in new faces in the Mufti cabinet. The Peoples Democratic Party-BJP alliance would continue, and that there was no threat to the two-year-old Mufti-led coalition government, they said.

The BJP’s move comes in the wake of two of its ministers, Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga, having been asked to quit the state cabinet. This was after a nationwide outrage over Singh’s and Ganga’s participation in a rally in support of those accused in the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.

While the central BJP has tried to distance itself from the actions of the two, the move to ask all its ministers to quit is to also show solidarity with them. The decision comes after meetings of the BJP legislators.

Currently in the Mufti cabinet, the PDP has 14 ministers.

In the state assembly, the PDP has 28 legislators and BJP has 25. This is the first instance of the BJP being part of a government in the state.