Cong: J&K situation not right for election

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 20

The Congress will adopt a wait-and-watch policy in Jammu and Kashmir with the party’s top leadership on Wednesday saying the situation in the state was not conducive for elections.

“It is for the government to create a congenial atmosphere for elections. The current situation is not favourable. We want elections but not elections where voter turnout is 7 per cent,” said AICC general secretary for J&K Ambika Soni while referring to the Srinagar Lok Sabha poll that National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah won after a poor turnout.

The calibrated stand came after the Congress core committee on J&K met under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and deliberated on the future strategy.

The committee blamed both BJP and PDP for “putting J&K on fire”. In its response to the developments, Congress cited public lynching of DSP Ayub Pandith, Kathua rape, abduction and killing of soldier Aurangzeb, killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari, and several civilian and jawans’ killings in the past 48 months to argue that normalcy was in tatters.

Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Soni said the state had been “plunged into an abyss of darkness by the rank political opportunism and lust of power of the BJP-PDP and both must take the blame”.

“Their (BJP and PDP) coming together in 2015 itself will be recorded in history as a saga of greed. Both campaigned against one another and then joined hands betraying people. It is a relief that the opportunistic coalition has collapsed,” the Congress said.