Boost for BJP in J&K, days after Bill, Pahari face and ex-NC leader joins party

IN A SHOT in the arm for the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the2024 Lok Sabha elections, former MLC and prominent Pahari leader Shahnaz Ganai from Poonch district joined the party in Delhi, in the presence of Union minister Jitendra Singh and MP Tarun Chugh.

The move comes just days after Parliament passed a Bill granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Pahari ethnic tribe predominantly based in the Pir Panjal region, comprising Rajouri and Poonch districts.

Ganai had welcomed the move, thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the J&K Scheduled Tribes Amendment Act, saying it will “pull oppressed Paharis out of the clutches of oppressors”.

Ganai follows in the footsteps of other prominent Pahari leaders to have joined the BJP recently, including Abdul Qayoom Mir and Iqbal Malik. Sources said others too may be crossing over to the party in the coming days.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had firstpromised the Paharis ST status. Getting their support can help the BJP offset the anger among the Gujjars and Bakerwals, who fear that the expansion of the ST umbrella will dilute the benefits enjoyed by them, particularly just when the quota has been extended to Assembly seats for the first time in J&K.

The daughter of deceased NC leader and former minister Ghulam Ahmed Ganai, Shahnaz Ganai hails from Mandi area of Poonch and was elected to the Legislative Council against the panchayat quota in 2013, completing her term in 2018. It was the first time a woman doctor had become a legislator in the erstwhile J&K state.

Having made her name as an outspoken leader and staunch campaigner of women rights, Ganai resigned from the NC in July 2019, ahead of the 2020 elections to the newly floated District Development Councils in J&K. Contesting