PTI, SRINAGAR/JAMMU: Two controversial BJP ministers, who participated in a rally in support of the people arrested for the rape-cum-murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Kathua, today exited from the PDP-BJP alliance government in Jammu and Kashmir, ending a simmering political crisis in the state.
A much-relieved Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for defusing the situation and said the unfortunate incident had brought the people of the state and the rest of the country “together”.
She said a sense of justice had been reinforced in the state and urged “New Delhi to wake up to the Kashmir cauldron”.
Both the alliance partners — the BJP and the PDP — had separate legislature party meetings in Srinagar and Jammu to discuss the situation arising out of the polarisation in the state over the rape-cum-murder of the girl after some leaders of the lesser-known Hindu Ekta Manch were arrested in connection with the case.
BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, who flew in to Jammu this morning, had a meeting with party leaders as well as legislators after which a decision to hand over the resignations of ministers Lal Singh and Chander Prakash Ganga to the chief minister was taken.
Both Ganga and Singh had participated in the rally on March 1 after the Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police had arrested the nephew of a caretaker of a ‘devisathan’ (temple) in connection with the kidnapping and rape of the little girl.
