PDP president Mehbooba Mufti. File
| Photo Credit: ANI
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti was up in arms on April 26, as a gaggle of events, together with the BJP, wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone elections for the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat.
“The ECI order to the J&K administration (to assess accessibility in Anantnag-Rajouri) has shocked me. It’s after a long time that the people of J&K have reposed faith in democracy. This government has snatched everything. Don’t snatch the ballots too. Don’t repeat 1987, which left Kashmir burning, filled graveyards and impacted generations,” Ms. Mufti stated.
Ms. Mufti’s assertion got here a day after the ECI sought a report from J&Okay Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P.Okay. Pole on “road conditions, weather and accessibility-related constraints” in Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, which is able to go to polls within the third part on May 7.
The ECI’s route got here after representations made by BJP’s Ravinder Raina, J&Okay Peoples Conference’s Imran Reza Ansari, J&Okay Apni Party’s Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari, J&Okay Apni Party’s Mohammad Saleem Parray and J&Okay Nationalist People’s Front. Besides, Ali Mohammad Wani and Arsheed Ali Lone, each Independent candidates, have made the same illustration. Interestingly, the BJP isn’t contesting from the seat.
According to these representations, “candidates from Rajouri and Poonch couldn’t file their nomination papers due to closure of Mughal Road in view of snowfall”.
However, Ms. Mufti took a highway journey to Poonch-Rajouri from the Mughal Road on April 25. “I have come from the Mughal Road. It’s open from April 8. It was closed for a few days. Landslides take place throughout the year. The BJP is a rich organisation and can take these parties, which wrote to ECI, in choppers. The PDP is a poor organisation, and workers have paid from their own pockets in the past 20-30 days to campaign. I ask the ECI what is behind the move. Any delay will deny us a level playing field,” Ms. Mufti stated.
‘Baseless gimmicks’
In a letter to the ECI, Ms. Mufti stated the transfer “is targeted at derailing our campaign”.
“The Kathua-Udhampur constituency is almost similarly placed geographically and climatically, but the election there has been already held in much worse weather and road conditions. It will be highly dubious to do so now in the last week of the campaigning,” the letter reads.
“The ECI has the distinction of having carried out logistically unhindered elections even in the middle of harsh winter and snow falls and never before in the history of J&K has any election been postponed for weather conditions. The main alliance partner of the petitioners, BJP, is headquartered in Jammu and therefore faces no difficulty in accessing the Pir Panjal,” the letter stated.
Ms. Mufti stated the events, which sought the postponement, “apparently see their electoral calculations coming apart”.
“They are now resorting to baseless gimmicks in the obvious belief that the ECI will implement their designs. It will be highly risky not just for the future of democracy in J&K but can also damage the national interest to accede to this preposterous request,” it added.
Ms. Mufti, within the letter, stated that she hoped that the ECI would contemplate the historical past of J&Okay earlier than taking any selections primarily based on geography with such big implications.
The Anantnag-Rajouri seat was carved out by the J&Okay Delimitation Commission, arrange after the Centre ended J&Okay’s particular constitutional standing. It joined geographically two distinct areas, Kashmir valley’s Anantnag and the Pir Panjal Valley’s Rajouri and Poonch.
The two areas are bifurcated by a mountain vary. The transfer was criticised by the regional events, the National Conference and the PDP, and alleged gerrymandering.