By Ovais Gul
Srinagar: Hours after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in the end of this year, the mainstream political parties here in the State said that delaying polls will add miseries to the people, adding that notification as well as the dates for the elections should be made public soon after the conclusion of Amarnath yatra.
Earlier today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah proposed that the President’s Rule should be extended in Jammu and Kashmir for another six months, adding that the Centre has started preparations and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir may be held by the end of this year.
National Conference Provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani told The Ins that the elections should have been conducted within the one year of Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that “we hope they issue a calendar after the Amarnath yatra is over and complete the election process within these six months anyhow.”
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Vice President and former MLC G N Monga termed the extension of President’s Rule as a poly of BJP-RSS, saying that “sense of alienation among the people in the state has increased under the BJP government.”
“By deferring Assembly polls in the state again-and-again, BJP government is denying the people of J&K their right democratic rights. Having an elected government is the democratic right of the people in a thriving democracy, but here this right to make a choice is being denied to the people,” Monga said.
He added that the Supreme Court (SC) had ruled that elections to legislative assemblies in states, where they are prematurely dissolved, should be held within a period of six months. “With the period of six months expiring on May 21 in Jammu and Kashmir, the elections to the legislative assembly should have been held within the time frame prescribed by the apex court and a popular government installed before the stipulated deadline,” he said.
CPI (M) senior leader and former MLA Kulgam, Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami said that the Center Government’s decision to extend President’s Rule in Jammu and Kashmir for six more months has disappointed the people of the state as they have been deprived of democratically elected government for the last more than one year.
“In the absence of an elected government, uncertainty in the State is deepening day-by-day and dissatisfaction among large section of people is increasing. Only effective response to this situation would have been to hold early Assembly polls as here is no justification to delay it, neither political nor constitutional,” he said.
Pertinently, all the political parties here have been demanded immediate conduct of assembly polls, saying that people should not be deprived of their democratic rights.
