J&K All-Party Meeting To Discuss 'Inclusion Of Non-Local Voters' Begins, BJP Prepares To Take On

NC president Farooq Abdullah had called the meeting slated to take place today to discuss the issue of the "inclusion of non-local voters" in the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi: The Jammu & Kashmir "all-party meeting'' begun on Monday and the discussion regarding the matter of revised electoral rolls is underway.

J&K parties like the NC and PDP have claimed the administration did not address their main concern on whether "outsiders" ordinarily residing in J-K will be allowed to enroll as voters.

“So the meeting will discuss everything threadbare. Even the clarification will be discussed. It is an all-party meeting and every party will present their point of view,” PDP chief spokesperson Suhail Bukhari said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

On the other hand, BJP President Ravinder Raina has called a meeting of top party leaders at 11 am today to chalk out a counter strategy against all-party meeting called by Farooq Abdullah in Srinagar, news agency ANI reported.

NC president Farooq Abdullah had called the meeting slated to take place today to discuss the issue of the "inclusion of non-local voters" in the electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir. This came after remarks related to adding voters in the revised rolls by the UT's Chief Electoral Officer Hirdesh Kumar raised hackles of the regional parties.

Govt Response To Concerns Over Electoral Roll

The government on Saturday issued a clarification, saying that the reports of a likely addition of over 25 lakh voters after the summary revision of electoral rolls are a "misrepresentation of facts by vested interests".

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," it stated.

"This revision of electoral rolls will cover existing residents of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the increase in numbers will be of voters who have attained the age of 18 years as of October 1, 2022, or earlier," it added.

The clarification was issued through an advertisement in local dailies.

Mainstream political parties claimed that the "inclusion of non-locals was a clear-cut ploy to disenfranchise the people of Jammu and Kashmir".

Even after the clarification, the J&K parties are scheduled to hold the all-party meeting at the residence of the NC president.

PDP, NC Say Clarification Doesn’t Address Apprehensions

“The ‘Clarification’ issued by DIPR is a silent endorsement of the statement given by the 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,” PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

“There is no clarity on the most important point of voting rights to outsiders ordinarily residing in J-K,” National Conference (NC) state spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar told news agency PTI.

Dar demanded that the government make it clear what it means by ordinarily living persons.

“The problem is that someone has come here and works as a labourer. There is no documentary proof like it is needed in other places that a person has lived for seven or eight years or so and then he becomes eligible to vote there. Any such person can come here for two months, deregister himself at his native place and register here to vote, and then return. So, if somebody comes here for two months, will he also be eligible for enrolling himself as a voter here,” the NC state spokesperson said.

The Congress party on Saturday informed that its representatives will also attend the meeting.

AICC in-charge J-K, Rajani Patil, told reporters that the party opposes the inclusion of non-locals in the electoral rolls and was mulling taking a legal course as well against the government’s move.

While there was no reaction so far from the Peoples Conference led by Sajad Lone over the participation in the meeting or over the clarification, Apni Party led by Altaf Bukhari appeared to be satisfied with the government’s response as he expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the clarification.

(With Agency Inputs)