Govt wants LS by-polls further deferred, Oppn fumes in anger

ZAFAR CHOUDHARY

JAMMU: Caught between two already overdue elections the state government is now looking for rescue towards the Raj Bhawan and the Nirvachan Sadan, leaving the Opposition fuming in anger.
The government wants the Panchayat elections to be held first but the Oppositions is petitioning all relevant offices to ensure that Lok Sabha polls to South Kashmir and Central Kashmir constituencies are not delayed any further. The timeline has both elections almost clashing with each other –a tight band of March and April –and the government is looking towards the Raj Bhawan and the Election Commission of India for a way out to have the Lok Sabha polls deferred –there is, obviously, strong political reason for having the Panchayat polls in the first place.
Since the Anantnag Lok Sabha election has already been deferred once for April and on Srinagar seat it is due for the same month. Deferring Srinagar and a further extension in Anantnag would be beyond the jurisdiction of the poll body as it would need intervention of the Union Law Ministry and accent of the President of India. A report by the Raj Bhawan, some experts privy to the development said, could be of great help to the government in building up its case for postponing Lok Sabha elections.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Election Officer Shantmanu told The News Now that while a preliminary process for Panchayat polls is already very much in process but his office has not received a written communication from government about the Lok Sabha polls. However, he admitted that holding both polls together could be a massive challenge. The CEO is attending a meeting with the ECI on January 22 when significant discussion about the Lok Sabha polls could be held in backdrop of upcoming Panchayat polls.
Reading out from a text prepared by the government and approved by the Cabinet, the Governor NN Vohra held out a commitment to the Legislature on January 2 that Panchayat elections shall be held by March –a deadline which is just less than 45 days away. Meanwhile, the by-election to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat is due by April 10. The government is already sitting over an extension from the Election Commission of India for polls in South Kashmir Lok Sabha seat which fell vacant in June last year and should have gone to polls by November.
Preparing for the Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies with full energy, the government wants the Lok Sabha elections on both seats to be further deferred. It is basically lead partner in the ruling alliance –the Peoples Democratic Party –which doesn’t want the Lok Sabha polls together or before the Panchayat polls.
The Central and South Kashmir Lok Sabha seats were won by the Peoples Democratic Party in 2014 general elections by handing down a crushing defeat to the National Conference, including personal defeat of former CM Dr Farooq Abdullah who lost first election of his whole political career. It was a ride on this success which built a wave in favour of PDP and proved helpful in the Assembly elections later the same year.
The Anantnag seat fell vacant in June last year following election of Mehbooba Mufti to the Legislative Assembly, a pre-requisite after she took over as Chief Minister in April last year. Though South Kashmir considered a pocket-borough of the Peoples Democratic Party, but the turmoil that erupted barely a month after the seat falling vacant had its whole epicentre in this region which saw most of the killings in confrontation between protestors and the security forces. Therefore, a contest on this seat is not considered easy as usual anymore for the Peoples Democratic Party which plans to field its newest high profile entrant, Tasaduq Mufti, on the South Kashmir seat.
The Central Kashmir seat also offers a peculiar challenge as this fell vacant after the incumbent MP, Tariq Hameed Karra, a founder member of the PDP, resigned from party and Lok Sabha to protest ‘government’s bad handling of the Kashmir situation’.
The government wants the Lok Sabha polls significantly delayed so that the PDP could consolidate position by testing its strength in the Panchayat elections. Reading into the government’s mind, the Opposition has reached out to the Governor and is also planning to write to Election Commission of India.
Omar Abdullah met Governor on January 11 and shared his concern. He is reported to have sought Governor’s intervention for timely conduct of Lok Sabha elections. The Governor is though not in favour of delaying the Lok Sabha polls but he is keen that Panchayat polls are not delayed on any pretext. Therefore, the Governor “urged Abdullah and his party to take active positive interest in the advancement of the State’s interests and to see large scale participation in the ensuing Panchayat, Municipal and Parliament elections”.
Earlier, on January 10, a delegation of Congress Legislature Party led by their leader Nawang Rigzin Jora also met the Governor and ‘expressed their concern about the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2016’.
In his address to the Joint Sitting of State Legislature on January 2, the Governor had said “the unrest in the past months in Kashmir has seriously hampered and retarded the peace, developmental and democratic processes and the environment was not conducive for elections to the rural and urban local self governing bodies. However, the State Government is fully committed to holding of Panchayat elections by March 2017 and proceeding to establish the three-tier Panchayati Raj institutional framework,” he said and added that following upon the conduct of Panchayati Raj elections the Government is committed to conduct the long pending elections to the Urban Local Bodies as well.