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Farooq Abdullah holds all-party meet over inclusion of non-local voters in J&K
Efforts of the NC and PDP to put up a united front against the "inclusion of non-locals as voters" in Jammu and Kashmir suffered a setback as the People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone opted out of the meeting.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah is holding an all-party meeting regarding the "inclusion of non-locals as voters" in Jammu and Kashmir at his residence in Srinagar on Monday. The National Conference called the meeting after remarks related to the addition of voters in the revised rolls by the Union Territory's chief Electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar raised hackles of the regional parties.
"We will see what all parties think about this law," news agency ANI quoted National Conference leader AM Sagar as saying.
However, the efforts of the NC and PDP to put up a united front against the "inclusion of non-locals as voters" in Jammu and Kashmir suffered a setback as the People’s Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone opted out of the meeting.
“If this effort (all party meeting) was serious, it would not be held under media gaze. Had it been serious, we would have met and you (media) would not even know about it. I don’t agree with the politics of Farooq Abdullah but I have immense respect for him,” Lone told reporters, reported news agency PTI.
He alleged that the meeting seemed to be a point-scoring exercise and he would not want to be a part of it.
“One lady (Mehbooba Mufti) calls an all-party meeting and the other makes (phone) calls for it. Also, tell me, how much can we pretend? We abuse each other politically 24 hours a day. I have hurled abuses at them yesterday, they have done it a day before. How long can we pretend that everything is hunky dory,” he said.
“Mehboobaji, desperate to retrieve her (lost) ground, issues diktat for calling all party meeting .... Maharaja Hari Singh’s era has long gone by,” he added.
Kumar had recently announced that the UT was likely to get around 25 lakh additional voters, including outsiders, after the special summary revision of electoral rolls being held for the first time after the abrogation of Article 370.
Government clarification
On Saturday, the government had issued a clarification, saying the reports of a likely addition of over 25 lakh voters after the summary revision of electoral rolls is a "misrepresentation of facts by vested interests".
The Kashmiri migrants "will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi, etc," it said.
Reacting to the clarification Mufti tweeted, “The ‘Clarification’ issued by DIPR is a silent endorsement of the statement given by Chief Election Officer. Doesn’t address our apprehensions about non locals en masse being given the power to vote.Yet another design to dispossess people of J&K.”
(With inputs from PTI)
