With J&K without representation in its legislative assembly since June 2018, all political parties have been pushing for “Restoration of Democracy” – a demand they reiterated on Thursday.
Parties across the Valley’s political spectrum were on the same page as Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, and Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and S S Sandhu, began their three-day tour of Jammu and Kashmir from Srinagar on Thursday. The ECI team is in Srinagar to review poll preparedness as Assembly elections have not been held in the union territory since 2014.
With J&K without representation in its legislative assembly since June 2018, all political parties have been pushing for “restoration of democracy” – a demand they reiterated on Thursday. The Supreme Court has asked for assembly polls to be held in J&K by September this year.
During the day, the elections commissioners met with representatives of registered political parties from the Valley, including the National Conference, the People’s Democratic Party, the BJP, the Congress and the BSP.
NC’s provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani led the party’s five-member team to meet the CEC at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Conference Centre. “We have impressed upon them to conduct assembly elections here. Elections have not been held for the last ten years and there is no elected government since 2018,” Wani said, adding that “having a local government is critical for the people”.
He said the ECI delegation had visited J&K earlier too, but despite this, elections were not held. “We told them that this should not be the case every time.” The NC delegation told the ECI that a Lieutenant Governor, his advisor and a few bureaucrats cannot run J&K since “there are several difficulties, developmental and security issues on the ground. These can be resolved through public representatives”.
Stating that there should be a level playing field for all parties, the NC leader said, “We are hopeful that they will conduct assembly elections here and the EC has assured us that this will now be completed because they’ve said that issues of reservation have also been resolved. Now I don’t see any reason for not conducting elections.”
A five-member team of the BJP also met the CEC, demanding elections to be held before the Supreme Court mandated deadline of September 30. “We have also asked for adequate security for the candidates and representatives of all political parties that will contest these elections,” party leader Avtar Singh told reporters outside the venue.
PDP leader Khusheed Alam attended the meeting and reiterated the demand. “If Parliament elections were conducted peacefully, tourists are coming to Kashmir in record numbers and the yatra is underway peacefully. There is no reason to push the dates for assembly elections. Law and order cannot be made an excuse.”
Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Monga said that the party delegation emphasised to the Commission that “we call ourselves the mother of democracy and still the people of J&K continue to suffer”.
“We also discussed the security scenario with them and brought it to their notice that different parties are treated differently with regard to security,” he said.
After meeting with officials of the UT administration on Friday, the ECI team will head to Jammu, where they are expected to meet political leaders from the region.
The assembly elections will be the first to be conducted since the revocation of Article 370 in 2019, and the splitting of the former state into two union territories. Source
