Jammu: Former state president of Peoples Democratic Party's Scheduled Caste wing Vijay Anand on Thursday joined BJP along with six others in Jammu, a party spokesperson said.  Anand, accompanied by Sanjay Kumar, Himanshu, Ravi Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar and John Sotra joined the Scheduled Caste wing of the BJP in the presence of its state president Jagdish Bhagat and state spokesman Balbir Ram Rattan. Welcoming the new entrants to the party fold, Mr Bhagat said that the BJP has relieved ' ' Valmiki Samaj '' from the suffering they have had to bear over the past 70 years because of Article 370. "These people were not treated as state citizens and their educated children were unable to apply for government jobs or other benefits," he said, adding that the BJP scrapped Article 370 provisions to benefit weaker sections of society.