J&K: WHY THE DELAY IN POLLS?

After a prolonged phase of President’s rule, the state is left wondering when it will see elections

It has been almost a year since the BJP pulled out of its opportunistic alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu & Kashmir in June 2018. The state is yet to emerge from the political vacuum.

Many like former PDP MLA Ajaz Ahmad Mir, from Shopian’s Wachi seat, favour an early assembly election to end the “political drought”. Coming from Mir, that means something. “People are feeling suffocated,” he says. “Governor’s rule cannot replace a popular government.”

The delay in elections is only deepening the mistrust between New Delhi and proIndia mainstream parties in the state, whose space shrank after the ideologically divergent PDP-BJP coalition assumed power in 2014.

Lok Sabha MP Hasnain Masoodi points to the 1996 election, held amid peak militancy after over six years of central rule. “Today, the situation is relatively better, but still the election is not held. This raises questions about the motive,” he says.

According to the J&K constitution, governor’s rule after

six months must make way for President’s rule, which began on December 19, 2018. The process of extending it is under way.

The Election Commission is required to offer an explanation if elections to a state assembly are not held within six months of its dissolution. The National Conference is mulling a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking answers from the EC. If Lok Sabha polls can be held, why not for the assembly, asks the NC’s Valley chief Nasir Aslam Wani.

While the EC supported the idea in its report soon after the parliamentary election, sources say there is strong opinion in Delhi and Srinagar against conducting elections before November. Besides the Amarnath Yatra, there is the tourist season and summer migration of the nomadic Bakarwal tribes to the mountains. If all is normal, the election could happen alongside those in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.