Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir): Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Vice President of National Conference Omar Abdullah on Monday said that the Election Commission of India (ECI), which on Monday announced the election dates for five states, was “following the instructions of the BJP” and he had no hope that the elections will be held in the UT anytime soon.
Omar, while addressing a press conference in Srinagar in the backdrop of a sweeping victory for the NC-Congress coalition in the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council elections in Kargil, said that the National Conference will be forced to take to the streets to put pressure on the Election Commission for holding the Assembly elections.
He said that he had “no hope of assembly elections". "I have asked my colleagues to reduce political activities so that they would not waste fuel in their vehicles," he said. On the victory of the National Conference-Congress in the Autonomous Hill Development Council in Kargil district of Ladakh, Omar said that the elections are a “referendum on BJP's August 5, 2019 decisions”.
The NC Vice President was taking a jibe at the BJP-led Centre's move to abrogate Article 370 which gave special status to the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and bifurcate it into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. He said that the results of the Kargil elections “show that the separation of the people of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir was bad for Jammu and Kashmir people, as much as this matter upsets the people of Kargil”.
Omar said that the results of these elections “should not be viewed on religious lines “because the Buddhist vote was not given to the BJP in this election, but a councilor of the National Conference was elected from the Buddhist area”. Pertinently, in Kargil Autonomous Hill Development Council, National Conference won 12 seats and Congress won ten seats, while BJP had to settle for two seats.
Also read: 'Don't see elections happening in J&K; we are not begging either': Omar Abdullah
On holding of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah said that the National Conference “is ready but the central government and the BJP are not ready because they are afraid of the people and cannot face them”. Over the Election Commision's decision to defer the elections, Omar said, “Today the Election Commission of India has once again disappointed the people here”.
It is worth noting that the Election Commission of India today announced the date of assembly elections in five states which are starting from November 7, but the commission did not make a mention about J&K elections. “We want to ask the Election Commission of India why they don't hold elections here. It is a pity that the Election Commission follows the signals of the BJP,” Omar said.
Omar Abdullah said that he hoped that panchayat and local body elections would be organized here. “But now BJP does not dare to hold any elections. They won't have held even the parliament elections, but holding it is their compulsion,” he added. The Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Monday that it will notify about holding Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir “at the appropriate time” while taking security concerns and other upcoming elections into consideration.
Rajiv Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), responded to a question about the elections in J&K during a press conference about elections in five Indian states by saying, "We will inform about holding Assembly polls in J&K at the right time keeping in mind the security and other elections that are also due in the Union Territory.
Five states—Chattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Rajasthan are going to polls from November 7, while on December 5, results will be declared. Jammu and Kashmir is under the president's rule since June 2018 when the PDP-BJP government collapsed. On August 5, 2019, the Centre abrogated Article 370 and downgraded the erstwhile state into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
