Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Apr 26: National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti today asked the Election Commission of India not to postpone polls in the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.
They made the appeal after the EC sought a report from Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and the Chief Electoral Officer P K Pole on representations submitted by some parties and three candidates seeking rescheduling of elections in the constituency due to adverse weather conditions.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO
“I appeal to the EC that such a step should not be taken. The demand for postponement is not from all parties. The weird thing is that some of the people who have written to the EC are not contesting. If I write to the EC about constituencies in Tamil Nadu etc. will they take notice,” Abdullah told a press conference in Srinagar.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
He said “all options are open”, including legal recourse, for his party if the Election Commission decides to postpone the polls. “All options are open to us. First and foremost, we appeal to the Election Commission not to do it. The Election Commission should issue a directive to the local administration to keep the road open,” he added.
Abdullah said the EC should not pay heed to the letter written by some parties and individuals, including the BJP for postponement of the elections under the garb of closure of the Mughal Road.
The NC leader said he failed to understand why anyone would seek postponement of an election based on presumption that the road will be closed due to inclement weather.
“The road is open today. Even if there is rain, it won’t be difficult to restore the road. Even if the road gets closed, our candidate is ready to go (to Poonch-Rajouri) by alternative road through Reasi,” he said.
“If they can keep the roads to Kargil, Keran, Machil and Gurez open, there is no reason why they can’t keep the Mughal Road open,” he added.
On the intentions to seek postponement of the elections, Abdullah said, “I can’t say why they wrote to the EC. Let’s accept that BJP does not do anything that does not benefit it”.
The NC leader said the people of the Anantnag constituency have been “unfortunate” that whenever it seems like the NC is having an upper hand, the elections are sought to be postponed.
“If you recall, in 2017 also people of Anantnag were disenfranchised. There was a PDP-BJP Government in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Minister (Mehbooba Mufti)’s brother was the candidate, who sought deferring the polls days before polling as he feared defeat,” he added.
Mehbooba Mufti who is in Poonch said that they all have ganged up against her because they do not want to see her in Parliament. “The people, cutting across religious and party lines, are coming forward in my support and they are, therefore, using the Election Commission to defer and rig the elections”, he added.
The PDP president said she travelled through the Mughal road which was recently opened for traffic.
“There is no justification in deferring voting in Anantnag-Rajouri seat. My request to the Election Commission is not to postpone the elections when only 10 days are left in the polling. This will send the wrong message and will have serious consequences,” she said.
Mufti referred to the alleged rigging in the 1987 Assembly polls leading to eruption of militancy in J&K. “We request EC not to do such an adventure as the people in J&K have already suffered a lot and have little faith left in the electoral process,” she said.
Mufti accused BJP of reshaping Anantnag Parliamentary constituency, using delimitation as an attempt to rig the elections in their favour.
“Don’t they have knowledge that the Mughal Road traditionally remains closed for six months but they joined parts on both sides of Pir Panjal just to rig elections. This is not happening anywhere else in the country,” she accused.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
