Assembly Polls Can Be Held In State Once Nomads Return From Grazing Cattle: BJP

Srinagar, May 14: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today said that it is not in favour of delaying assembly elections in the state but said that some political parties want polls to be conducted immediately is not possible.

“We are not in favour of deferring or delaying assembly elections. Had assembly polls been held together with Parliamentary elections, it will have favoured our party,” BJP senior leader Ashok Koul told Kashmir News Service (KNS).

“However, some parties demand holding of assembly elections immediately is not possible because Gujjar and Bakerwal, which are about 30 lakh voters are in migration phase these days. We can’t deprive them of their voting rights. So once they return back from grazing their stock from hills, assembly polls can be held,” Koul said.

State based political parties including Congress and NC have demanded that assembly elections should be held in the state after Parliamentary polls were conducted recently.

Over the prevailing security situation in the Valley, Koul said that out of 10 districts of Kashmir “only 3 districts are witnessing violative situation.”

“In rest of the districts of Kashmir, situation has improved and the centre government will deal with the situation to bring peace in these three districts,” he said.

On the withdrawal of his security on protest, the BJP leader said that he surrendered his security to protest the “wrong information provided by police to Governor.”

“Some officials in Police had given wrong information to Governor about the security of slain BJP member Gul Mir of Anantnag. I wrote to the governor to clarify him about the security of late Mir. Governor has assured that security will be provided to all those political activists after proper verification by police,” he said.

Asked that opposition parties accuse BJP of polarising voters and threatening minorities, he said that Congress is “polarising voters in the country and did recently in Jammu and Kashmir Parliamentary polls”.

“Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir and Congress in the country are playing political games to create insecure atmosphere among them and then blame BJP. In recent Parliamentary polls, all regional parties including Congress, PDP and NC polarised votes against us, but still people voted for Modi and BJP,” he said.

The BJP leader lashed out at Congress for not taking any action against its leader Asgar Ali Karbalaie in Kargil who contested elections against the Congress official candidate.

“Karbalaie went against Congress party. Yet Congress didn’t take any action against him for his anti-party activity. Congress is playing double policy. We threw Lal Singh out of the party after he went against party lines. Lal Singh is no more a member of BJP,” he said. (KNS)