EC’s credibility hit: Congress, NC

Opposition parties say Anantnag bypoll cancelled to save State government

NEW DELHI, 18/02/2017: (From right): Congress leader Ambika Soni with Tariq Hameed Karra, leader of People's Democratic Party and Jammu and Kashmir Congress President G.A. Mir addressing at a press conference after he joined the Congress Party at AICC headquarter in New Delhi on Saturday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The National Conference and the Congress on Tuesday alleged that the Election Commission had decided to cancel the Anantnag Lok Sabha byelection to saving the BJP-PDP coalition government in the State from embarrassment.

J&K Pradesh Congress Committee president G.A. Mir, the joint candidate of the two parties for the seat, said the failure of the Union and the State governments to conduct the elections showed “how grim and out of control the situation in Kashmir is”.

The Congress candidate alleged that the Centre could not provide the security required and adopted dilly-dallying tactics “to save the already dented image of the PDP-BJP government in the State”.

Slams alliance

“Scrapping of the byelections is a blot on the face of both the State and the Central governments. The PDP-BJP alliance has no moral right to remain in power,” he said. National Conference general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said the cancellation had “put a question mark on EC’s credibility”.

At PDP’s bidding

“The EC has taken this decision on the recommendation of the coalition government in the State. Earlier, everybody urged the EC to postpone the bypolls keeping in view of the unfavourable atmosphere but they went ahead and later the PDP’s candidate urged the Commission to postpone the election, which was agreed to by the EC,” Mr. Sagar alleged.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and NC working president Omar Abdullah, blamed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti for the EC’s decision.

“This is your legacy Ms. Mufti. Your ‘5% of the people’ have brought J&K back to the early 1990s; yet shamelessly you cling on to power! It’s depressing to see how far we have regressed in Kashmir from the highs of the Assembly polls of 2014 to the cancelled election of 2017,” Mr. Abdullah said.

The leader said that in many ways, this was similar to the symbolic victory against India scored by the release of militants for Ms. Mufti’s sister in 1990. “The only things keeping Ms. Mufti in office are her shamelessness and a misplaced sense of pride in Delhi preventing admission of mistake,” Mr. Abdullah said.

The EC on Tuesday cancelled the byelections, citing “unfavourable conditions”.

Earlier, PDP candidate Tassaduq Mufti had also suggested to the ECI to cancel the upcoming polls.

The byelection to the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat witnessed violence on April 9, leaving nine civilians dead.

Later, the EC postponed the bypolls for Anantnag seat, scheduled for April 12, to May 25.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah won the Srinagar byelection, defeating PDP candidate Nazir Khan by 10,766 votes in an election marked by a low turnout.

The constituency, comprising 15 Assembly segments across Srinagar, Budgam and Ganderbal districts, saw just 80,000 of the 12.5 lakh voters exercising their franchise.