Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 16: The Political parties in Kashmir today questioned the Election Commission for not holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir along with the Lok Sabha polls.
National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah today said there is “something fishy” in not holding the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir along with the Lok Sabha polls.
“If there are conducive conditions for the parliamentary election, how is it not alright for the state election? There is something fishy,” he told reporters here.
He said it was sad that the Assembly polls have been delayed even after all the political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought an early election.
Abdullah said the Centre is pushing for “one nation, one election” and this was an opportunity for it.
“Four states are going for both parliamentary and state elections. Why are you denying the people of Jammu and Kashmir the right to choose their own government? There must be something brewing in their minds which they cannot do if they have these elections with the parliamentary polls. I am quite confident that they are not sure about their victory here,” Abdullah added.
NC leader Omar Abdullah said the Election Commission (EC) is unable to conduct simultaneous polls in Jammu and Kashmir even as it has acknowledged that the Assembly election is due in the Union Territory.
“So much for ‘One Nation One Election’. The EC is unable to conduct assembly polls in J&K with the general election even when they acknowledge that elections are due #GeneralElection2024,” he said in a post on X.
Congress leader, Ghulam Ahmad Mir, said that the general elections were expected to be announced simultaneously with the rest of the country, but the people in J&K were hoping for the concurrent parliamentary and assembly elections.
“If the situation is conducive for the LS polls in J&K then why not for the assembly elections,” he said and termed the statement of ECI about the requirement of additional security for conducting assembly polls as a fake reason. “India is not a small state, when security can be arranged for the four states then why can’t for J&K. This is nothing but a fake reason,” he said.
Apni Party Senior Vice President, Ghulam Hassan Mir also expressed disappointment over the ECI’s decision. He said that they were expecting the ECI to announce assembly polls in J&K.
“It is unfortunate the assembly polls have not been announced by the ECI when people were expecting it. We demand that there be early assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Peoples Conference (PC) spokesman, Adnan Ashraf Mir said: “I don’t think we were of the opinion that the simultaneous polls will be announced in J&K, but we hope the assembly polls are held before September this year. The Supreme Court has already passed a direction to ECI in this regard and we just hope that the directions are followed and assembly polls are held before September 2024.”
The EC today said the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir will be held after the Lok Sabha polls as organising both simultaneously is not viable from the security point of view.
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