The Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday expelled 15 workers for alleged anti-party activities, PTI reported. “It was unanimously decided to expel the workers from the primary membership of the party forthwith for having filed nomination papers against official candidates of the party for urban local body and municipal polls,” a BJP spokesperson said.

He added that the decision was taken by the BJP State Election Management Committee at the party office in Trikuta Nagar in Jammu, at a meeting chaired by party state president Ravinder Raina.

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Meanwhile, an unidentified Congress MLA from the state said on Wednesday that several BJP youth workers and the saffron party’s media coordinator from Gugara, Sheikh Imran, had joined the Congress in the presence of state party vice president GM Saroori.

He said the new members asserted that they have faith in the policies and programme of the Congress party, which alone could preserve Article 370 and Article 35A of the Indian Constitution.

Article 370 grants Jammu and Kashmir special status. Article 35A gives the state legislature the power to define the “permanent residents” of the state and provide them with special rights and privileges.

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“The Congress has always provided a vibrant platform to youths to play their designated role in the state polity and help in shaping its politico-economic destiny,” Saroori said while welcoming the new members. He described Imran’s decision to join the Congress as a “vindication” of the party’s “pro-people” policies, and declared that the time had come to “unite and defeat communal forces which are befooling the poor with false slogans”.

Jammu and Kashmir will hold urban local body polls in four phases from October 8 to 16. However, 215 candidates have already been elected unopposed, reports said on Wednesday. The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the Peoples Democratic Party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bahujan Samaj Party have all boycotted the elections.