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BJP to ally with Jammu State Morcha
for J&K poll

The Bharatiya Janata Party will contest the Jammu and Kashmir assembly election in alliance with the newly formed Jammu State Morcha, which is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

"We are having an alliance with the Morcha so as to check division of votes...," BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley said after a meeting of the party's Central Election Committee at the residence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi.

The meeting was called to chalk out the party's electoral strategy and seat-sharing arrangements for the upcoming assembly polls.

He said the BJP is against the trifurcation of the state, as being propounded by the Morcha, but "we are for development of the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh".

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, now in England, and former party president Kushabhau Thakre, being indisposed, were the notable absentees at the meeting.

On the number of seats to be given to the Morcha, Jaitley said party president Venkaiah Naidu would decide it.

Jaitley said, "We decided that at this juncture, we should avoid division of various nationalist groups, and therefore, by way of adjustment leave a few seats for the Morcha."

The BJP had won eight seats in the 87-member assembly in the last elections and this year it is likely to contest all seats in alliance with the Morcha.

Minister of State for Defence Chaman Lal Gupta, who represents the Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency in J&K, will lead the party's election campaign.

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