J&K Guv stands ground on dissolution

Jammu/Srinagar, November 22

A day after Governor Satya Pal Malik dissolved the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly,  some political groups questioned his action and its timing, while others welcomed it and called for holding Assembly elections along with the parliamentary elections early next year.

Unfazed by criticism by the National Conference, Congress and PDP leadership over his action of dissolving the Assembly yesterday when rival alliances staked claim to form the government, the Governor stood his ground, claiming, “I acted as per the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.”

The Governor told mediapersons that the “alliance staking claim to form the government was opportunistic in which money power was used and what I did was keeping in with my stance from day one of my assumption of the Governor’s office that I will never allow a government through defections.”

The dissolution of the House also kicked off a war of words between the BJP, its ally People’s Conference and the PDP, National Conference and Congress in which charges were traded over the nationalistic credentials of the groups concerned.

Taking strong exception to BJP general secretary Ram Madhav’s charge that the three parties got together on the “directions from across the border”, NC vice-president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah dared the BJP leader to prove his charge. Ram Madhav later retracted his charge.

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti also questioned the BJP on the issue, saying how she was a “nationalist as long as she was an ally of the saffron party”. However, the BJP and the NC appeared on the same page in demanding that the Assembly polls be held along with the parliamentary elections in 2019. — TNS