Mayawati on Article 370 Move: BSP expects people living in J&K will be benefited.

Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Tuesday praised the Centre's move of withdrawing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories by scrapping Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Taking to Twitter, she said, "The demand for the removal of Section 370 and Article 35 A related to the special status to Jammu and Kashmir was pending for a very long time. The BSP now expects that the people living there will be benefited from the Central Government's decision in this regard."

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also claimed the Buddhist community living in Jammu and Kashmir are also happy with the Centre's decision of making Ladakh a separate Union Territory.

"Similarly, with Leh-Ladakh being declared as a separate Union Territory, the long pending demand of the Buddhist community in Jammu and Kashmir has been fulfilled. BSP welcomes this decision. From this decision, the whole country especially the followers of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar who are Buddhists are very happy," she said in another tweet.

Earlier, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also came out in support of the government praising the central government's decision on Jammu and Kashmir. "We support the government on its decisions on Jammu and Kashmir. We hope this will bring peace and development in the state," he tweeted.

A resolution removing the special status of the state under Article 370 was approved by the Rajya Sabha on Monday with Home Minister Amit Shah saying the constitutional provision was the "root cause of terrorism" in the state, and the Modi government was committed to making the state the most progressive in the country.

The Jammu and Kashmir (Reorganisation) Bill, 2019, which strips Jammu and Kashmir's status of a state and converts it into a Union Territory with legislature and carving out Ladakh region as a Union Territory without legislature, was passed in a division pressed by the Opposition with 125 votes in favour and 61 against, and a Nationalist Congress Party member abstained.

The revocation of special status to Jammu and Kashmir has been long on the agenda of the BJP and its predecessor Jana Sangh, but the earlier BJP-led governments in 1998 and 1999 had kept the issue on the backburner citing lack of majority.