“Neither we were and nor we are part of the BJP”, he told media persons while replying to a question whether the proximity of Apni Party with BJP had backfired during the recent Lok Sabha elections when all three candidates of the party badly lost in Kashmir.
Apni Party’s other senior leader and former minister, Choudhary Zulfikar Ali, joined the BJP on Monday.
The BJP has not fielded its candidates on any of the three Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir valley and is supporting Apni Party on the Anantnag and Srinagar seats and the Peoples Conference chief Sajad Lone in Baramulla
Manhas was addressing a series of election rallies in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri where Pakistan is trying hard to revive terrorism by repeatedly targeting men of the Indian Army.
Announcing the names of the candidates in a press conference in Srinagar, the chairman of the parliamentary affairs committee of the Apni Party, Dillawar Mir said Mohammad Ashraf Mir would contest the Srinagar seat while Zafar Iqbal Manhas has been fielded from Anantnag.
J&K's Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari and senior vice-president Ghulam Hassan Mir discussed the issues of the Kashmiri prisoners who are lodged in the jails in J&K and outside.
The party wants to bring the people of two regions, Kashmir Valley and Jammu, closer to each other and promote unity and communal harmony, said Ghulam Hassan Mir.
Memorandum also seeks the release of those under preventive detention, fast tracking of recruitment processes for unemployed youth
Lt Governor Sinha said that Home Minister Amit Shah has made a detailed statement on the floor of Parliament that the statehood would be restored at an appropriate time.
Party’s vice-president regretted the alleged sluggish attitude of the administration towards the spread of lumpy skin disease particularly in Rajouri district.
