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J&K: Farooq Abdullah calls all-party meet to discuss voting rights to non-locals

Mehbooba Mufti said all parties should now look beyond elections

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Farooq Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and leader of People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration for (PAGD), which seeks restoration of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, has called for an all-party meeting to discuss the Election Commission's decision to allow non-locals to vote in assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

This came shortly after former chief minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said at a press conference she has contacted Abdullah to discuss the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Hirdesh Kumar's announcement grantin voting rights to non-locals in Jammu and Kashmir. On Wednesday, Kumar announced that non-locals, including employees, students, labourers or anyone from outside living ordinarily in Jammu and Kashmir, can enlist his or her name in the voting list and cast vote in the elections in the Union Territory.

“After the abrogation of Article 370, many people who were not enlisted as voters in the erstwhile State of J&K are now eligible to vote and in addition anyone who is living ordinarily can also avail the opportunity to get enlisted as a voter in J&K in accordance with the provisions of Representation of the People’s Act,” Kumar said at press conference. He said an expected 25 lakh such voters will be enlisted.

Mufti called the decision the last nail in the coffin of electoral democracy in Jammu. She said all parties in Jammu and Kashmir should now look beyond elections and focus on resolution of the Kashmir issue. “Only then the BJP will be compelled to change its dangerous and evil decision,” she said on Thursday. She said she requested Abdullah to call a meeting of all the parties to discuss the issue.

The meeting will be held at the residence of Abdullah on Monday in Srinagar. Except the BJP, all parties have been invited. Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have sharply reacted to the move to grant voting rights to non local in Jammu and Kashmir.

“GOIs decision to defer polls in J&K preceded by egregious gerrymandering tilting the balance in BJPs favour & now allowing non locals to vote is obviously to influence election results. Real aim is to continue ruling J&K with an iron fist to disempower locals (sic),” Mehbooba said in a tweet after the CEO's announcement .

Peoples Conference (PC) Chairman, Sajad Gani Lone said the step would be a replay of 1987. “This is dangerous. I don’t know what they want to achieve. This is much more than a mischief. Democracy is a relic especially in the context of Kashmir. Please remember 1987. We are yet to come out of that. Don’t replay 1987. It will be disastrous,” Lone tweeted.

CPI (M) senior leader, Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami said the delimitation process through the reorganisation Act was an attempt to change the electoral demography of the region.

“In the absence of any representative government in J&K, the union government has been exercising undiluted control in the region through a bureaucratic structure since June 2018,’’ he said. “Today’s statement of the CEO is a brazen assault on the legitimate aspirations of the people,” he said.

Apni Party urged the government of India to come clear on the matter as prima facie this is aimed at disempowerment the people further. “We hope that supremacy of the Law is upheld, and no illegal or arbitrary decision is taken,’’ the party said in a statement

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