Delayed elections

There has been further delay in holding of State assembly elections, forcing Omar Abdullah and other mainstream leaders to blame Centre for the delay. National Conference, especially Omar Abdullah are very eager for the holding of State Assembly elections as soon as possible in Jammu and Kashmir State, as they want to get the vote of anger against Mehbooba Mufti in Kashmir Valley to their favour. Omar Abdullah took to twitter recently and asked Prime Minister Narindra Modi to talk about early elections in Jammu and Kashmir State instead of IPL. Omar said that Modi’s government is the first central government since 1996, failing to hold assembly elections on time.

The growing anger among the mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir State stems from the fact that Election Commission of India has yet to take a final call for holding of polls in the State, as they have asked for more feedback from Union Home Ministry to take the final decision.

Governor’s administration in the latest meeting of ECI has told them that, the situation was no conducive for holding assembly elections in the State and suggested that they should be held in October-November this year.  State administration has a complete feedback from the ground and these all summer months should be avoided for holding polls as there is Amarnath yatra, tourist traffic and the movement of Gujjar and Bakerwals from their respective places.  This is for the first time that for the single parliamentary segment of Anantnag we have conducted polls in three phases. It speaks volumes about the situation on ground.

With holy month of Ramadan going on in J&K State, there would be Amarnath yatra and after that, the Governor’s administration has said that hundreds of nomad families were out of their respective places. It is most likely that State elections would be held in the month of November.