by Jahangir Sofi
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir PDP termed the rescheduling of the polling date for the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency as a “crime” and accused Election Commission of India being in hand-in-glove with the BJP. The party demanded making the report of Jammu and Kashmir officers’ public on which the decision was taken.
After making an abortive bid to break out in a protest from the party headquarters, senior leader Nayeem Akthar, denounced the delimitation process, accusing it of disenfranchising and dispossessing a specific community in Kashmir. He termed it as part of ruling party’s “pre-poll rigging”.
“Carving out this constituency as a geographical audacity was part of pre-poll rigging,” Akhter said. “It was aimed at working along caste and religious faultlines to further disenfranchise Jammu and Kashmir after taking away Art 370 and 35A, the special status and downgrading it as a state.” He said the process is still ongoing.
He stressed that the event of August 5, 2019 were not isolated event but part of an ongoing process aimed at eroding the unity and rights of Kashmiris.
“Delimitation commission made a document, which was aimed at targeting a specific community to snatch their voting rights and to end the unity by disenfranchising and dispossessing them”, Akthar asserted.
He said that plans were made to start new parties to undermine PDP, but despite that, the tide was turning against such efforts. Akthar questioned the rationale behind rescheduling polls for the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, noting that the BJP, despite lacking a candidate there, was advocating for its rescheduling.
Akhter said the BJP created “bonsai parties” after growing them in vases and giving them everything to become the “showpieces”.
“BJP has no locus stand as they don’t have any candidate there who is contesting, yet they were front runners advocating for its rescheduling,” Akthar insusted.
Alleging collusion between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the electoral body— Election Commission of India (ECI), Akthar said that the BJP-led government, was in tandem with the ECI, stating that ECI was becoming a tool of BJP.
“They have taken everything from Kashmir, including special status, constitution, and rights,” Akthar highlighted, underscoring the enduring suffering by three generations experienced by the people of Kashmir as a result of these actions.
He urged the ECI to desist from carrying this process further, cautioning that its continuation would implicate the electoral body in perpetuating injustice not only against the people of Jammu and Kashmir but the entire nation. He said the rescheduling is a crime that ECI has resorted to.
The last crime was the 1987 elections, a consequence of which buried three generations in Kashmir. “This was the time for BJP to heal those wounds by permitting us to use the right to vote but they have snatched it away,” Akhter added.
Earlier on Tuesday, PDP said the decision of Election Commission to postpone the polling in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat to May 25 was “another travesty of free exercise of franchise” in Jammu and Kashmir.
“This is yet another travesty of free exercise of franchise in J-K that has lost generations in pursuit of democratic rights. This decision to pander to the bonsai parties planted post-August 2019 is fraught with immense dangers. It’s a repeat of the disastrous 1987 election fraud,” senior PDP leader Naeem Akhtar posted on X.
Notably, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti is among the candidates contesting the elections from the constituency.
Pertinently, the commission’s decision comes after several leaders including Jammu and Kashmir BJP unit chief Ravinder Raina, Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party chief Altaf Bukhari, People’s Conference leader Imran Ansari and others had approached the Election Commission requesting for rescheduling of polls to the seat due to adverse weather condition. BJP and Peoples Conference are not contesting the seat.
