Cong ready to take part in polls if leaders released: Mir

QUOTE: “It is a reality that of the over 12,500 seats, 60 per cent seats in the Kashmir valley had remained unfilled in the main (panchayat) elections but the government had made tall claims about the smooth and successful elections in the Kashmir region,” State Congress

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 17

Despite strong reservations against the way the panchayat by-elections have been announced in Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress on Monday challenged the BJP and said the party was ‘willing to participate in the elections’ if the detained leaders were released and were allowed to meet people.

Addressing a press conference here, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Ghulam Ahmed Mir took strong exception to holding the polls on a party basis. He said it clearly showed that the ‘BJP wants to influence the outcome of the elections’ as a majority of the opposition leaders were under detention.

“The Congress is not averse to (holding) the polls to the vacant seats and will contest if all our leaders are released and allowed all sorts of genuine political activities in a secure atmosphere,” said Mir.

The Congress also expressed concern over the announcement that the elections would be conducted on a party basis when those held in 2018 were conducted on a non-party basis.

“Even today, I am not allowed to go to Kashmir despite a written request last evening. So, what sort of elections on a party basis are being held by the present dispensation under the BJP-led centre government?” Mir asked.

Mir was flanked by JKPCC vice-president Raman Bhalla and chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma.

Mir said when the main panchayat elections were held on a non-party basis in 2018, it was illegal and arbitrary to hold the by-elections to the left-out seats or vacancies on a party basis.

“It is a reality that of the over 12,500 seats, 60 per cent seats in the Kashmir valley had remained unfilled in the main elections but the government had made tall claims about the smooth and successful elections in the Kashmir region,” the party said.

The Congress has alleged that the BJP government “first forced the elections to the Block Development Councils on a party basis by putting all opposition leaders behind bars or under strict restrictions and now again the elections were being held on a party basis without allowing leaders of the parties except the BJP to resume political activities especially in the Valley”.

Mir also blamed the BJP of weakening the panchayati raj institutions during its tenure by making retrograde amendments to the Panchayat Act.