BJP confident of winning over 50 seats in J&K, will not enter into pre-poll alliance: Ashok Koul

Srinagar, Dec 21 (PTI) The BJP will not enter into a pre-poll alliance for the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as the party is confident of winning over 50 seats and forming the government on its own, senior leader Ashok Koul said on Thursday.

“After the elections take place, if an alliance is needed, it will happen. But, as of now, the BJP has decided that we will cross 50 seats and the support the BJP is getting in Kashmir, we are confident that we will cross 50 seats,” Koul, the BJP’s general secretary, organisation, Jammu and Kashmir, told reporters here.

When asked some political parties in Jammu and Kashmir are claiming the BJP is afraid of facing the elections in the Union Territory, Koul said his party is ready for the polls.

“It is not like that. The Supreme Court (SC) has said about the elections and so, I want to tell the parties to start preparations as the assembly elections are to take place before September (next year). The BJP is ready for the polls,” he added.

When asked that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the issue of Article 370 is not acceptable to some parties in the valley, the BJP leader said his party’s stand is that everyone should accept the apex court’s verdict.

“I do not have an answer to that. The SC is the highest court in democratic India. We have said it before as well that whatever decision the SC takes, everyone should accept that. If someone has anything to say about it, they know it, but the stand of the BJP is that everyone should accept the SC’s verdict,” he said.

Commenting on the issue of expulsion of the MPs from the Parliament, Koul said that no one should make fun of the country’s institutions.

“You saw they indulged in mimicry of the vice president and made fun. A person, who calls himself a big leader of the country shoots a video of that,” Koul said taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“This is the result of the opposition parties’ loss in three big states. No one makes such fun of institutions of the country,” he added.