BJP wants to disenfranchise people of J&K by granting voting rights to outsiders, says Mehbooba Mufti

Mehbooba Mufti said the new move is aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the people of Jammu and Kashmir be those Muslims, Dogras or Pandits.

Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and People's Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday said that the BJP government at the Centre wants to disenfranchise people of J&K by making non-locals eligible to vote in the upcoming Assembly elections. "The new move is aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the people of Jammu and Kashmir be those Muslims, Dogras or Pandits," Mehbooba said while addressing a presser in Srinagar.

The PDP president was referring to J&K Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar's announcement at a press conference on Wednesday that non-locals will be eligible to vote in the upcoming elections in the UT. Mehbooba said that granting voting rights to the non-locals is "aimed at conducting fraud elections to favour the BJP". She said that people of the country "should understand the intentions of BJP that whatever the party is doing it is for power only". She asked the regional parties to jointly draw a roadmap to counter the BJP government against its move to grant voting rights to non-locals.