‘Land jihad’ or Kathua rape row: Key J&K Hindu right-wing face joins BJP

Significantly, the Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal had earlier announced 3 candidates for the polls – its authorities president Manoj Padha, Meenakshi Kalra and Srikant Rathore, who contested arsenic Independents from Bhaderwah, Doda-West and Paddar Nagseni Assembly constituencies, respectively. The voting for each 3 seats happened successful the archetypal signifier connected September 18. Sharma says helium had not taken a telephone connected joining the BJP astatine the time.

His determination to transverse implicit present whitethorn beryllium important for the BJP up of voting successful 24 Assembly constituencies, dispersed implicit the hilly Udhampur territory and the plains of Jammu, Samba and Kathua, scheduled for the 3rd signifier connected October 1. The BJP’s hopes of putting up a bully J&K show remainder mostly connected this area, with the enactment having picked up 18 of its 25 seats successful the erstwhile authorities from present successful 2014.

In the caller Lok Sabha polls though, the Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal had failed to marque overmuch of an impact, with Sharma and enactment workfellow Padha unneurotic getting little than 12,000 votes crossed the Jammu and Udhampur parliamentary constituencies they contested in. There are galore reasons Sharma is simply a bully acceptable for the BJP’s politics.

A bundle technologist and a instrumentality graduate, Sharma is simply a practising lawyer and laminitis of the IkkJutt Jammu, which was formally declared a governmental organisation connected November 14, 2020. The outfit garnered enactment advocating the instauration of a abstracted Jammu authorities and the part of Kashmir Valley into 2 Union Territories, including 1 for Kashmiri Pandits. He demanded that the migration of Pandits from Kashmir beryllium recognised arsenic “genocide”, and that ineligible safeguards beryllium provided to “protect the demography” of areas dominated by Hindus successful J&K.

Sharma has besides opposed colony of nomadic Gujjars and Bakerwals (who are mostly Muslim) successful the forests of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts arsenic “land jihad’’.

In 2014, portion inactive a instrumentality student, Sharma had approached the J&K High Court seeking a CBI probe into an alleged scam relating to the transportation of authorities onshore to “illegal occupants” nether the Roshni Act – describing it excessively arsenic “land jihad’’, meant to alteration the demography of the Hindu-majority plains of Jammu province.

In 2016, Sharma filed a PIL successful the Supreme Court challenging the hold of number presumption to Muslims successful J&K, wherever they are successful a majority. He has besides challenged State power of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.

In 2018, helium approached the Supreme Court seeking CBI probe into the rape and execution of a insignificant Bakerwal miss successful Kathua’s Rasana forests. Right-wing outfits, including Ikkjutt, had claimed astatine the clip that the Hindu youths arrested successful the lawsuit were being falsely implicated.

While his plea for a CBI probe was rejected, Sharma aboriginal represented 1 of the accused during the proceedings astatine a Sessions Court successful Pathankot.

In 2018, Sharma besides shared a “secret classified document’’ pertaining to minutes of a gathering chaired earlier that twelvemonth by past Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, successful which she was stated to person asked territory constabulary chiefs that immoderate lawsuit against tribal assemblage members (Gujjars and Bakerwals) staying successful forests beryllium taken up lone aft clearance from the Tribal Affairs Department.

The tensions implicit the Kathua intersexual battle and the supra leak each contributed to the divided betwixt the PDP and BJP, causing their authorities to collapse. In 2019, Sharma figured successful the deed database of the Hizbul Mujahideen.