In a major blow to the Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Bharatiya Janta Party, its Lok Sabha from MP announced his resignation from his position in parliament, as well as in the party on health grounds.
Only yesterday BJP ‘s , Harish Chandra Meena, a sitting MP of the saffron party from Rajasthan, on Wednesday joined the Congress ahead of the assembly elections next month.
With the sitting MP resignation , BJP strength gone down to 267 from its 282 MPs tally it got during 2014 election. The half way mark is 272 and BJP is 4 short of Majority .
Thupstan Chhewang, the BJP MP from Ladakah wrote to J&K state BJP chief Ravinder Raina announcing his resignation from the primary membership of the party with immediate effect.
The 71-year-old leader also noted that he was writing a resignation letter to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan. “I am also writing to the honorable speaker Lok Sabha resigning as MP from Ladakh parliamentary constituency,” he said .
The BJP admitted that they had received the letter from Chhewang. “He has resigned on health grounds. He has said he is not in a position to remain in active politics,” said Sunil Sethi, chief spokesman of J&K BJP.
The resignation comes weeks after Congress swept the Municipal polls edging out the BJP in Leh.
Congress won all the 13 wards in Leh Municipal body, while in Kargil, the party won six and independents seven wards
But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday emerged as a clear winner in the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) elections with 43 seats in its kitty, bettering its previous strength of 25 in the 75-member body.
Whereas Congress winning only 14 seats against its 26 in the 2005 civic polls, election officials said.
