J&K All-Party Meeting Concludes, Leaders To Decide On Moving Court Over 'Inclusion Of Non-Local Voters'
"We'll invite the leaders of all national parties to Jammu & Kashmir in September & keep our issues before them," Abdullah said.
Farooq Abdullah, the leader of the National Conference on Monday hosted an all-party conference at his home in Srinagar to discuss the "inclusion of non-locals as voters" in Jammu and Kashmir, news agency ANI reported.
The Union Territory's top electoral officer, Hirdesh Kumar, made comments about the inclusion of voters in the amended records that infuriated the regional parties, prompting the National Conference to summon the conference.
"We'll invite the leaders of all national parties to Jammu & Kashmir in September & keep our issues before them," ANI quoted Abdullah as saying.
We'll invite the leaders of all national parties to Jammu& Kashmir in September & keep our issues before them: National Conference leader &former J&K CM, Dr Farooq Abdullah
— ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2022
An all-party meeting was called by Dr Farooq Abdullah today to discuss 'Registration of New Voters in J&K' pic.twitter.com/oidQDyTDen
"We all parties are against this new law (voting rights for non-locals in J&K), we oppose it. We are also thinking about going to court on this," he further stated.
"We will see what all parties think about this law," NC leader AM Sagar was quoted by ANI on its official Twitter handle.
However, the People's Conference chairman Sajad Gani Lone chose not to attend the meeting, undermining the NC and PDP's attempts to present a unified front against the "inclusion of non-locals as voters" in Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking with reporters, Lone stated: “If this effort (all party meeting) was serious, it would not be held under media gaze. Had it been serious, we would have met and you (media) would not even know about it. I don’t agree with the politics of Farooq Abdullah but I have immense respect for him,” ANI reported.
He claimed that the gathering appeared to be a contest for points and that he would not want to participate in it.
“One lady (Mehbooba Mufti) calls an all-party meeting and the other makes (phone) calls for it. Also, tell me, how much can we pretend? We abuse each other politically 24 hours a day. I have hurled abuses at them yesterday, they have done it a day before. How long can we pretend that everything is hunky dory,” he said.
“Mehboobaji, desperate to retrieve her (lost) ground, issues diktat for calling all party meeting .... Maharaja Hari Singh’s era has long gone by,” he added.
After the special summary review of electoral records, which is being conducted for the first time since Article 370 was repealed, Kumar recently stated that the UT was expected to gain almost 25 lakh extra voters, including outsiders.
'Misrepresentations Of Facts By Entrenched Interests': Govt Issues Clarification
The administration issued a clarification on Saturday, claiming that the allegations that over 25 lakh voters will likely be added following the cursory review of the electoral records were "misrepresentations of facts by entrenched interests."
The document said that the Kashmiri migrants "will continue to be given the option of voting at their place of enrolment or through postal ballot or through specially set up polling stations at Jammu, Udhampur, Delhi, etc."
In response to the govt's statement, Mufti on her official Twitter handle writes: “The ‘Clarification’ issued by DIPR is a silent endorsement of the statement given by Chief Election Officer. Doesn’t address our apprehensions about non locals en masse being given the power to vote.Yet another design to dispossess people of J&K.”
(With Inputs From Agencies)
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