Hold Assembly elections without delay in J&K, say parties

Srinagar, November 26

A day after the final electoral roll of J&K was published, political parties in Kashmir on Saturday said while they were studying the details about the addition of new voters, the Election Commission should now announce Assembly polls for the UT.

The final electoral roll of J&K was published on Friday with the highest-ever net addition of more than 7.72 lakh voters. It has a total of 83,59,771 electors, including 42,91,687 men, 40,67,900 women and 184 of third gender, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Anil Salgotra had said.

Talk about polls

Now that the whole process is over, the party expects the Election Commission to come out and talk about Assembly elections. Tanvir Sadiq, NC spokesperson

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It will be important to see how many new voters are state subjects and how many have acquired domicile certificates. Suhail Bukhari, PDP’s Chief spokesperson

National Conference (NC) spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said the party was studying the details of the electoral rolls, constituency-wise. “Now that the whole process is over, the party expects the Election Commission (EC) to come out and talk about Assembly elections in J&K,” he said.

With the release of the final electoral roll, Sadiq also expressed hope that now the confusion and resulting apprehensions about addition of 25 lakh new voters, as the then CEO Hridesh Kumar had said in August, would be put to rest.

PDP’s chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said it would be important to wait and see who these new voters were. “How many of them are the people who were otherwise the state subjects and how many are those who acquired domicile certificates. These details are yet to come out,” he said.

On Assembly polls, he said, “We really do not expect things from them because they have been giving contradictory statements. One one hand they say the security situation has improved, but on the other they say that once the situation improves elections will be held, and then the statehood (will be restored).”

Peoples Conference spokesman Adnan Ashraf Mir said it would take some time to study the electoral rolls.

Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari said the final rolls were according to expectations. “When a hue and cry was raised that 25 lakh new voters will be added, I had said the government should come clear on it and it had issued a clarification. So, an increase of 10 per cent is not much of an addition and it is a matter of satisfaction that no outsider has been added,” Altaf Bukhari said, adding that the the party expected the polls to be conducted now.

Awami National Conference senior vice president Muzaffar Shah said if the new voters were those from J&K, then there is no problem.

‘Clandestine approach to add outsiders’

• Political expert AN Sadhu says authorities appear to have adopted a clandestine approach to add outsiders. Around 8 lakh new voters can change the vote bank equilibrium in favour of the ruling party, he adds.
• CPM leader MY Tarigami says non-BJP parties will discuss the issue.