EC calls for re-poll in 38 stations

SRINAGAR: The Election Commission has called for a re-polling in 38 polling stations in Srinagar parliamentary constituency which had seen the maximum violence during byelections for Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday. The re-polling will be held on Thursday.

Jammu and Kashmir chief electoral officer Shantmanu confirmed the development and said that these stations fall in Budgam district.

The poll panel had on Monday postponed the Anantnag Lok Sabha bypoll to May 25 in light of the law and order situation.

Meanwhile, broadband internet services were resumed after two days in Kashmir on Tuesday, even as the Valley remained shut for the second day, following a strike called by the separatist leadership against the killing of eight civilians on Sunday.

Tasaduq Mufti, brother of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and the PDP candidate for Anantnag, had told reporters on Monday that the state government had formally written to the poll panel that elections couldn’t be held in the current environment.

On Tuesday, shops, businesses houses and educational institutions remained closed for the second consecutive day in Kashmir, and roads too were deserted. Mobile internet services were not restored till the time of filling this report.

Meanwhile, senior separatist leader and chairperson of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah said in a statement that “people’s rejection of so-called parliamentary polls” was a “referendum against India”. Shah, who is currently in jail, said the election boycott was a slap on the face of “New Delhi and its puppets”.

“The people of Jammu and Kashmir, by rejecting the sham polls, have sent a clear message to (the) world that they won’t accept anything less than freedom,” Shah said. Terming the government’s decision of deferring the so-called elections as the acknowledgement of its defeat, the DFP chairman said those who used to make “5% remarks” have suffered “a big blow”.