The election commission of India’s decision to delay holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir “due to security reasons” came in for severe criticism from the state’s mainstream political parties on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said the assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh, Arunachal, Odisha and Sikkim will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections but not in Jammu and Kashmir “due to security reasons”.
The Jammu and Kashmir assembly was dissolved in Novemberlast year, months after the Mehbooba Mufti-headed government in the state fellfollowing the BJP’s withdrawal of support to it in June.
Arora said the election commission decided to announce theschedule for only LokSabha polls in J&K and not for the assembly electionsdue to “inputs it had received from authorities regarding constraint ofavailability of central forces for enforcing security in the wake of recentviolence.”
Even the parliamentary election for the Anantnag LokSabha seat in the state is going to be held in three phases, he said.
National Conference leader and former state chief ministerOmar Abdullah slammed withholding of assembly elections and criticised the Modigovernment.
“First time since 1996, assembly elections in J&K arenot being held on time. Remember this the next time you are praising PM Modifor his strong leadership,” he tweeted.
“In light of the failure to conduct assembly elections ontime in J&K, I’m re-tweeting my tweets from a few days ago. PM Modi hassurrendered to Pakistan, to the militants and to the Hurriyat. Well done Modisahib. 56-inch chest failed. #slowclap,” Abdullah wrote on twitter.
Omar said Modi’s “abject surrender to anti-India forces” is”a crying shame”.
“Balakote& Uri are not symbols of PM Modi’s handling ofnational security, J&K is and look at the mess he has made there. Theabject surrender to anti-India forces is a crying shame,” he said.
Omar said in 2014, J&K had LokSabha elections on timeand assembly elections on schedule even after the most-devastating floods, butdelaying them now “shows how badly the BJP and earlier the BJP-PDP mishandledJ&K”.
“What happened to (union home minister) @rajnathsingh’s assuranceto LokSabha and RajyaSabha as well as to the all-party meeting recently inDelhi that all forces would be made available for simultaneous polls?” he askedin another tweet.
Omar said he never thought Modi would be “willing to confesshis failure” on a global stage by not conducting the assembly polls on time inJ&K.
“With the amount of international attention elections inJ&K attract I never thought PM Modi would be willing to confess his failureon a global stage but we all make mistakes and that was mine,” he said.
Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti slammedthe decision to hold only parliamentary elections in J&K.
“Decision to hold only parliamentary elections in J&Kconfirms sinister designs of GoI (government of India). Not letting peopleelect a government is antithetical to the very idea of democracy. Also a tacticof buying time to disempower people by pushing an agenda that suits theirulterior motives,” she tweeted.
By delaying the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the governmentof India has itself certified that the situation has “gone out of control” inthe state and is “not conducive” for the elections, the J&K Congress chiefGhulam Ahmad Mir said on Sunday.
Alleging that the BharatiyaJanata Party wants to “grabpower” in J&K, Mir said it was “the golden chance” for the centralgovernment to hold the assembly elections in the state and give the people anelected government.
“All political parties were of the opinion that simultaneouselections should be held in the state, but the Centre has failed to hold theassembly elections citing ‘volatile’ situation. This is indicative of theCentre’s utter failure to respect the urges and aspirations of the people,” Mirsaid.
He said that during the Congress rule at the Centre, theelections were conducted in 2014 “despite an unfavourable situation in J&Kthat time”.
“Yet, the state experienced highest voter turnout. This timethe polls were deferred due to mishandling of the situation by the centralgovernment,” he said.
Senior CPI(M) leader and former MLA, M Y Tarigami said theelection commission’s decision has disappointed the people of the state ingeneral.
“This was done despite that almost all the political partieshad urged upon the Election Commission to hold both the electionssimultaneously. Not holding assembly polls will send wrong signals to peoplewithin and outside the state,” he said.
He said the chief election commissioner during his presserin New Delhi repeatedly quoted recent incidents of violence in Kashmir as thereason for not holding assembly polls.
“If that is true,then how could the LokSabha polls be held? Even the J&K governor recentlysaid that Prime Minister NarendraModi complimented him for “successful” conductof the civic elections in Jammu and Kashmir. When these polls could be held,what is the logic for deferring assembly polls?” Tarigami questioned.
He said that J&K is without an elected government for the past nine months and in the absence of an elected government, “uncertainty in the state is deepening” day-by-day and “dissatisfaction” among a large section of people is increasing. PTI