SRINAGAR: On the eve of repoll for 38 polling stations in Budgam, seven independent candidates on Wednesday asked people to stay away from the exercise as it will add to the crisis created on Sunday. They had jointly come to Srinagar and briefly addressed the media in a hotel here.
They distributed a brief letter that was addressed to the Chief Electoral Officer seeking “implementation of real democracy in ground level”. The letter said that the decision of repoll was taken without consulting them. “If Election Commission of India has postponed election in Anantnag why they cannot postponed in Budgam; even they did not bother to show us the belt /control unit,” the letter reads. (The exact sentence was lifted from the letter).
The candidates asked the people not to come out for voting them. “We do not want and we do not mean any harm to you,” they said. “The government is tricking all of us into it.”
The candidates who have signed the vague letter include Mirza Sajad Hussain Beig, Haji Ghulam Hassan Dar, Engineer Sajad Reshi, Chetan Sharma, Bikram Singh, Mehraj Khurshid Malik and Farooq Ahmad Dar.
“The blood spilled in Budgam on Sunday is still hot,” they said, insisting that the area should have been permitted to rest. “They deferred polls in south Kashmir but not in this area.” They said they want people to stay away from the repoll exercise.
