SRINAGAR While National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah pushed for early elections in Jammu and Kashmir, former chief minister Omar Abdullah has said his party won’t beg before the Centre for holding of assembly elections and said that Election Commission of India needs to answer why elections are not held in J&K.
The panchayat and municipal elections are scheduled in J&K in October. J&K’s lieutenant governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on Sunday said that elections in J&K will be held in a transparent way through a democratic process.
Addressing a gathering in Budgam district, Sinha had said that nobody will be allowed to “hijack democracy in J&K as seen in the past”.
However, he didn’t make any reference about holding of the assembly polls in the state. Senior officials in J&K administration have dropped enough hints that panchayat and local body polls will be held by the end of this year. The term for panchayats and municipal corporations and councils comes to an end in October.
When Omar Abdullah was asked by reporters on Tuesday that why assembly elections are delayed, he said the elections are right of people of J&K but “will not beg before the government (for) the assembly elections”.
“We want Election Commission of India to make things clear. The chief election commissioner of India said that there is a vacuum in J&K. Then why this vacuum isn’t filled by the ECI. They should answer this, what is stopping them from holding assembly elections in J&K.” Taking a dig on ECI, Omar said that ECI should tell us that they are under pressure not to hold assembly elections in J&K.
{{/usCountry}}“We want Election Commission of India to make things clear. The chief election commissioner of India said that there is a vacuum in J&K. Then why this vacuum isn’t filled by the ECI. They should answer this, what is stopping them from holding assembly elections in J&K.” Taking a dig on ECI, Omar said that ECI should tell us that they are under pressure not to hold assembly elections in J&K.
{{/usCountry}}This isn’t the first time, NC vice-president Omar Abdullah said that they won’t beg for assembly elections before the Centre government, earlier also he made similar statements despite saying that elections are basic right of people of J&K.
On Sunday, Farooq Abdullah told reporters that Jammu and Kashmir was suffering for the want of elections. Abdullah said the administration led by the LG and a few advisors was not enough for the development of the region.
“Regions are governed by members of legislative assembly (MLA), who look after the needs of their constituencies. Bureaucrats do not care about these things as they have to retire after 60 years while MLAs have to face people again after five years. If they don’t work, people won’t vote for them. That is why it is necessary that elections are held here. Not holding elections causes huge loss to Jammu and Kashmir,” the senior Abdullah said. The last assembly elections in J&K were held in 2014, since then all the mainstream political parties are waiting for announcement of assembly elections, despite the fact delimitation process has been completed and fresh electoral rolls have also been published.