OPPN ANNOUNCE JOINT STRUGGLE AGAINST J&K DELIMITATION PANEL REPORT

JAMMU: Major opposition parties, including the Congress, NC and PDP, on Monday announced a joint struggle against the recently released final report of the Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir.

The announcement was made after a three-hour long meeting of the parties and several social organisations under the banner of All Parties United Morcha (APUM) here.

Saying that the report was against the basic norms, especially geographical realities of uniform population, compactness continuity, connectivity and public convenience, they announced to launch a silent sit-in in front of the election commission office here.

The APUM comprising Congress, National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M), CPI and IDP besides several social organisations like Mission Statehood and Desh Bhagat Yadgar Committee has already rejected the delimitation report as “highly objectionable, biased and politically motivated”.

“It was decided in the meeting to jointly launch a struggle and a sustained campaign to oppose the (delimitation) report and awaken the general public, starting from a joint sit-in this week in front of the election commission (office) here,” read a statement issued after the meeting.

Senior Congress leader and former MLC Ravinder Sharma presided over the meeting which among others was attended by NC provincial president (Jammu) Rattan Lal Gupta, former MP Sheikh Abdul Rehman, former MLC Ved Mahajan, PDP spokesperson Virinder Singh Sonu and CPI(M) leader Kishore Kumar.

Criticising the final report, the leaders said the Commission has totally ignored the ground realities and neglected the convenience and aspirations of the people of different areas and widened the gap of population from 37,000 to 1.9 lakh in different constituencies.