Jammu and Kashmir parties hit out at Centre for no Assembly election

SRI NAGAR: The Election Commission’s decision not to hold simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir came in for a lot of flak, with almost all the political parties in the state, barring the BJP, hitting out at the Centre.

National Conference vice-president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah blamed the Centre in a series of tweets. “First time since 1996 Assembly elections in J&K are not being held on time. Remember this the next time you are praising PM Modi for his strong leadership” Omar said. He said in 2014, the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held on schedule despite the most devastating floods. “Shows how badly the BJP & earlier the BJP-PDP mishandled J&K,” Omar tweeted.

In a dig at PM Narendra Modi, he said that with the amount of international attention elections in J&K attract, he never thought the Prime Minister would be confess his failure on a global stage, but “we all make mistakes & that was mine”.

“Balakote & Uri are not symbols of PM Modi’s handling of national security, J&K is and look at the mess he has made there. The abject surrender to anti-India forces is a crying shame,” he added. Another former CM, People’s Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti, said the decision to hold only parliamentary elections in J&K confirmed the “sinister designs of Government of



India”.  “Not letting people elect a government is antithetical to the very idea of democracy. Also a tactic of buying time to disempower people by pushing an agenda that suits their ulterior motives,” she said.

State Congress vice-president Ghulam Nabi Monga accused the EC of acting at the behest of the BJP. “Every party had favoured simultaneous Assembly and parliamentary polls in the State. But at the behest of the BJP, the EC deferred state Assembly polls. The ECI has been influenced by BJP,” he said.Monga said additional security forces are needed for parliamentary polls and same could have been utilised for state polls.

CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami also termed the decision to not hold simultaneous polls as disappointing and said it would send a wrong signal. “When panchayat and ULB polls could be held, what is the logic for deferring the Assembly polls?” he asked.

However, BJP spokesman Sunil Sethi defended the EC  saying it may have deferred state polls on the basis of the feedback received from security agencies and administration.The Governor administration, however, claimed it had not sought deferment of Assembly polls but wanted adequate security arrangements. “We were ready for simultaneous polls if certain number of paramilitary forces personnel were provided for holding the elections,” Security Advisor to J&K Governor K Vijay Kumar said.