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‘Tomorrow, we could be left out of…’: Farooq Abdullah on J&K electoral roll row
“We will invite the leaders of all national parties to Jammu & Kashmir in September and keep our issues before them,” Farooq Abdullah told reporters during an all-party meeting at his residence.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Monday said all opposition parties are against the new law (inclusion of non-locals as voters in Jammu and Kashmir) and they are thinking of moving the court on the matter.
“We will invite the leaders of all national parties to Jammu & Kashmir in September and keep our issues before them,” Abdullah told reporters during an all-party meeting at his residence.
Abdullah also said he had requested L-G Manoj Sinha to call an all-party meeting to discuss the developments. However, it was not considered.
“We do not accept this. We have differences but all parties present here have come together realising that tomorrow we could be left out of our assembly,” Abdullah added.
The meeting was convened following remarks by the Union Territory's chief Electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar on the addition of voters in the revised electoral rolls after which the Jammu and Kashmir's Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) issued a clarification stating that there is no change in the special provisions for the enrolment of Kashmiri migrants.
"There is no change in the rules regarding the buying of property and jobs in the Jammu and Kashmir's government and no link to the representation of voters or otherwise," it added.
‘Will sit on hunger strike in Delhi if…’: Sajad Lone
The Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference (JKPC) chairman Sajad Gani Lone, however, did not participate in the meeting.
"We as a party neither accept the clarification given by the government in totality nor do we reject it. We know the current administration here or in Delhi doesn't hold political parties in Jammu and Kashmir in high esteem," Lone said
Lone also said that they will sit on a hunger strike in front of Parliament in Delhi if the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are compromised.
He further said that the decision to add non-locals to the voter list is not part of the law.
“We had our own constitution earlier and our legislature had formed a law which defined everything. However, it is not the law that is a threat to us, but we are scared of those who are implementing the law. If we feel there is demographic intervention or the rights of the people of J&K are compromised, then we will sit on hunger strike in front of Parliament in Delhi,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party president Ravinder Raina also called a meeting of top party leaders at the party headquarters in Trikuta Nagar.
The agenda of the meeting was to chalk out a counter strategy against the all-party meeting called by Abdullah and others in Srinagar.
The Election Commission on August 17 had announced the schedule of the Special Summary Revision in Jammu and Kashmir, and said the people who were not voters in the assembly after the abrogation of Article 370 from the region can now be named on the voter's list.
According to an official, the person need not be a "permanent resident" of the Union Territory for the same.
The move was opposed by PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti who called it the "last nail in the coffin of electoral democracy".
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
