PDP, Congress yet to take final call on participation
Mehbooba’s party says will go for wider consultations
A day after the National Conference decided to boycott local body and panchayat polls in the state, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress have yet not decided whether they will participate in the local bodies elections or not.
In a meeting headed by PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday, the party decided to go for wider consultation and consult its leaders and workers about the polls strategy.
However, a senior PDP leader said that many leaders and workers of the party are insisting on the party leadership to boycott these elections as the situation on ground is not feasible for these polls and majority of the workers are against these elections.
The Congress leaders will also be meeting soon to decide upon the matter.
The National Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Wednesday that the party will boycott polls unless the Centre clears stand on the Article 35A.
PANCHAYAT CONFERENCE CRITICISES PARTIES
The All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference on Thursday criticised mainstream political parties for politicising the upcoming elections.
The panchayat conference said that former panches and sarpanches will take a decision about participating in the polls after all the mainstream political parties will reveal their stand.
“Whether it’s the National Conference, PDP, Congress or BJP, the leaders of all these parties have politicised the panchayat and local body elections as they were never interested in empowering the institutions on the grassroots level,” president of All J&K Panchayat Conference Shafiq Mir told Hindustan Times.
AJKPC is the only organisation of former panchayat members of the state. The tenure of some 4,000 sarpanches and over 29,000 panches of the state ended in 2016.
He said that if these parties, especially the NC, PDP and Congress are serious, they should resign from their assembly and Parliamentary seats. “These all parties are playing politics over this issue. They are not resigning or boycotting the places where laws are being made but making institutions, which are meant for welfare of villages, controversial.”
Mir, who has been terming the elections non political, said everybody is concerned about the Article 35A, including former panches and sarpanches, but the mainstream political parties are using this for serving their own interests. “The mainstream parties and the Centre have made these elections a big issue and we also need to devise a strategy about this. The elections are no longer a non political issue.”
He said after the prominent mainstream parties will reveal their strategy, members of the All J&K Panchayat Conference will meet to take the decision whether to take part in these elections or not.
POLLS TO START ON OCTOBER 1
The Jammu and Kashmir government announced last week that municipal and panchayat polls will start on October 1and will go up till the first week of November. The decision was taken by the state administrative council (SAC) under the chairmanship of governor Satya Pal Malik. Preparations for the elections have been on ever since the state came under governor’s rule on June 20.
MILITANTS, JRL’S CALL FOR BOYCOTT
Militants and separatists Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have called for a boycott of the local bodies’ polls in Jammu and Kashmir, saying people’s participation in the elections are propagated “as a verdict in India’s favour”.