Congress is not hopeful that early elections will be held in Kashmir, while National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has demanded that a democratic government be installed in the State at the earliest.
At a press conference here on Wednesday, Congress general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad said that his party wanted a government in Jammu and Kashmir which was representative of its people. “We want a government in Jammu and Kashmir that actually represents the State. We saw the pitiable turnout in the Lok Sabha bypoll and will not like a repeat of it. We are asking the Governor and the government to ensure that congenial atmosphere is maintained to enable election,” Mr. Azad said.
The core committee of Congress on Kashmir, headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met on Wednesday to give a structured response to BJP’s abrupt decision to pull out of the alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party. Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Kashmir leader Karan Singh joined the meeting through teleconferencing. The Congress posed seven questions to Narendra Modi government on its future plans for the State.
He said that during the 48 months since May 26, 2014 when the Modi government had been in power, 379 jawans have been martyred and 239 civilians were killed in the State.
During the last 48 months of Congress rules, 139 jawans were martyred and 78 civilians killed. In the past 48 months, there had been 3,000 ceasefire violations by Pakistan compared with 563 during the last 48 months of the Congress government.
