Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has decided to contest the scheduled District Development Council and Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking to the media, PCC Chief, GA Mir, said: “We have taken this decision in the backdrop of assurance which was given to us by the election commission that they will provide security cover to the candidates.”
“Congress never runs away from contesting elections. Last time, there were security concerns of the candidates that was why we did not contest Panchayat elections,” said Mir while speaking to the media at the party office here.
Mir said that final notification was issued for elections but the political parties were not consulted by the election commission and questioned why the assembly polls were not being conducted in J&K along with the DDC and Panchayat elections.
“It’s been almost 2 years in J&K that there is no elected government in J&K. They had to conduct assembly elections first after creating 7 seats for assembly constituencies as per Reorganization Act, 2019, but they have failed miserably,” said Mir.
“In contrast, they created 280 DDC seats for elections within 24 hours and failed to increase 7 seats of assembly constituencies.”
He said that in these DDC and Panchayat polls, they will highlight ‘failures’ of BJP policies in J&K like downgrading J&K into Union Territory, bifurcation of erstwhile State into two Union Territories, no job and land security “even as they had promised.”
“The new land laws are not acceptable for any resident of J&K in which they have opened floodgates for outsiders. BJP has tried to damage our culture.”
ON GUPKAR:
The J&K Congress Chief said, “We are signatory to the Gupkar Declaration. In the first meeting, I was unwell and the second meeting was called on short notice. I had requested them to arrange it after November 10 because my national leadership is busy in Bihar elections. We have to take national leadership on board.”