MT News Service Jammu, December 16: Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir DDC elections, has stated, “the people of J&K will give BJP a decisive mandate in DDC elections and reinforce that ballot is mightier than the bullet !” Along with other BJP leaders, Anurag Thakur was addressing an election rally at Samba. Thakur said, “our campaign has been only about development and our track record under Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows we can deliver time bound results for socio-economic growth. Ever since the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, we have prepared and implemented a development oriented roadmap for J&K. We want an inclusive, participatory form of governance and we will encourage the youth to take up leadership roles in this process.” Thakur went on to say, “in the recently concluded Hyderabad Municipal polls we won 48 seats this time in comparison to 4 in 2016. In the state of Rajasthan, the BJP won 1989 seats out of 4371 Panchayat Samiti seats. The incumbent Congress received 1852 seats, this shows a clear lack of trust for the party at its activities. In fact in the Zila Parishad elections, the BJP won 353 seats in comparison to the Congress 252 seats. In the by-elections of UP, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh swell we saw how people reposed their faith in BJP. Even in the local elections in Goa, we got a decisive mandate. This clearly shows a strong wave of support in favour of the BJP at all levels of the democratic system. BJP fights elections with all the energy of its karyakartas and supporters. We win because we serve the interest of people, we set targets and deliver development as per timelines, we keep the public at the centre of all our policies.” Thakur further said, “its a fact that the Gupkar Gang looted the state of its resources, it is also a fact their neglected basic healthcare, education, infrastructure, employment needs of J&K. There is dejection amongst the karyakartas because the Gupkar Gang has already been rejected by the people.” Thakur said, “previously we have seen how the Gupkar Gang discouraged citizens from participating in the electoral process. They created an atmosphere of fear. The voting percentage was barely 3-5% and today the J&K region gets 40-50% voter turnout. This is because people have faith PM Narendra Modi’s politics of hope and development for J&K.”